Halloween Soil
by KageOokami1819
Summary: A darker version of RWBY with different characters and maybe a few fan-favorites. Follow two new teams as they come to terms with their pasts, presents, and discover their future of glory or loss. WARNING: Chapter 1 is meant to be light, don't say I didn't put a warning here, because I did. From chapter 4 and on, I will do everything to make a good story that will make tears.
1. Chapter 1 The Rookie

By: Kage Ookami

Halloween Soil

Prologue:

Legends. Stories scattered through time. Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts of a forgotten past. Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful. But he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness, creatures of destruction, the creatures of Grim, set their sights on man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void.

However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named, "Dust." Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence, came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life. But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone. . . Darkness will return. So, you may prepare your guardians. . . Build your monuments to a so-called free world, but take heed. . . There will be no victory in strength.

"But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul."

Welcome, to Remnant.

Chapter 1: The Rookie

A girl stood alone beneath a broken moon in a calm looking clearing within a shadowy forest. Her black cape blew gently in the wind, and her jet black hair with purple streaks shifted slightly in the same direction, showing a little skull beret resting on the right side of her head, before her hair settled down just past her neck, and her eyes shined a bright purple color. Her skin was as pale as snow, yet so very fair it almost shined in the night-light. The wind picked up and blew away her cape, and she looked up in slight surprise to see it float away before sighing and looking back at some blank object in the distance. She blinked once and looked down at her clothes. A black shirt and combat skirt with purple linings along the sides that came together at the center to form a faded purple star.

She turned her eyes to the left as eight more shadowed figures walked out quietly from the tree line behind her. All eight were Beowolves, their fangs as white as the almost bone like structures protruding from their skulls and backs. One that stood at the center of the pack on its hind legs growled, much more bone like structures decorating it as the alpha of the pack. It growled, but the girl merely smiled as she frowned at it, "Finally you show up," She placed her right hand on her hip and pointed at the creatures, "My name is Sora Starling! I'm a student at Combat School! And I'm here to destroy you in a totally awesome way!" She shouted at the creatures.

The alpha of the pack growled with growing anger, and the creatures around the alpha began to draw closer to the girl.

She looked up and gave a cocky smile, "You're not going to survive against me!" She shouted while placing both hands at her hips, smiling with a confidant gaze aimed at the entire pack. The creatures showed no hesitation as they drew closer and closer. The alpha finally snarled loudly, and the Beowolves growled in response before charging towards Sora, hate and blood lust shining in their eyes.

Sora widened her stance, lowered herself a bit, and picked up her hands, "Bring it on!" The first one swung down both its claws, but Sora spun to the right, kicked her leg out for a clean roundhouse kick that shattered the creatures head. She suddenly jumped into a backflip to avoid another claw slash from one of the other creatures. She landed close to the creature, and punched out with full force to send the next one flying into another, killing one while the other tried to stand back up. Sora ducked as one of the larger ones swiped to the side of her. She then swooped its feet out from under it and caused the massive creature to fall down on its back, hitting its head hard, and knocking him out. She then got into a crouched position so she could jump into the air as the next two of the creatures swung their claws at her lower body.

Sora smiled and kicked her legs out into an aerial split to kick both of them clean in the face for an easy kill that destroyed their skulls. Another one with a serrated claws swung down quickly as she barely touched the ground, and it snarled hungrily as it readied itself to kill. Sora gave a cocky grin and pulled a black rod out from her pocket. It shot out into a sword that was cut in the middle so as to allow for two blades on one hilt. She blocked the claws and spun around to cut the creatures arm off, stab the blade into its neck, and then fire a bullet straight out of its skull before pulling the blade out. One of the creatures stood back up and ran forward to strike her, but she sliced with lightning speed to remove both its arms before kicking it back into the tree line it had come from. The last of the pack that was obeying the Alpha looked at its leader nervously, only to see it snarl at him. That creature then looked to Sora and started to claw its way towards her.

She took a knee and arched her body to the side while the sword folded back and extended a gun barrel out, while retracting the hilt, so the sword became a long barreled rifle. She pointed it up at the creature while it had its claws raised, but it stopped itself from moving and started to stumble back. Sora held her position and watched the creature turn tale and run away in fear.

The Alpha shook its head and crouched before charging towards her. Sora grinned and aimed her gun at it, "Come on then! Show me you're worth that bounty!" She shouted as the creature jumped at her. She fired a shot and rolled out of the way as it landed right where she was moments ago. Sora stood up straight and looked down at her outfit to see a claw mark going through the side of the skirt. "Ugh, do you know how long it took me to make this? Finding this in my size is hard as is! And I hate going out shopping!" Sora cried out as the creature growled and came after her again. "Fine then, semblance it is then," she said as she aimed her gun at the creature. Her eyes glowed neon for a short moment as she seemed to analyze the creature with inhuman focus, and as the creature readied to pounce she fired a shot and then rolled out of the way as the creature suddenly slid past where she was and slammed into a tree. "Weak spot, right above the left shoulder near the neck, maybe next time you'll better protect yourself," she said as she watched the body begin to vanish. "Finally… Now to call the authorities for my reward," she said with a hungry grin at the thought of a reward.

After some time had passed, Sora watched the authorities scouring the area she had been in, ensuring the Grimm creatures were truly dealt with. She stayed watching for a moment before finally turning back to the man she was speaking with, who had called her name three times before she even remembered he was there. "So then . . . Sora Starling . . . I would say good job, but you both never took an official contract and that was also very incredibly dangerous work you did out there tonight."

Sora rubbed the back of her head and laughed nervously, "Y-Yeah well I was just out for a stroll and they came out of nowhere, so I just had to defend myself you know?"

The man frowned, "Well then . . . As the chief of the police's bounty division, I give you the reward of two hundred Lien for the creatures slain, as well as four hundred for taking care of the pack leader. Despite you not officially taking this contract." He backed up slightly in surprise as Sora's eyes flashed in excitement at hearing such high numbers.

He held out a sky blue plastic card for her, which she reached for greedily. He pulled it away and Sora snapped back to reality, "Uh . . . Roland? What uh . . . What are you doing exactly? I'm supposed to be paid right? So just give me my money." She said while trying to grasp the card he held above her just out of arm's length. "Hey! Come on stop it!" Roland looked down and glared, which caused Sora to recoil back and shake a bit. "Roland? What did I do?"

He sighed and handed her the money. "Sora . . . You're not a kid anymore, stop trying to run off and have all these adventures, what would your father say if he knew you were taking contracts from the Bounty Board at the police station? Without permission from us or him I might add. You nearly gave him and your mother a heart attack when you wanted to run off and become a Huntress at one of those academies, and I know it was hard enough for him to say yes to that, so why on earth would you be doing this? You've still got another year of combat school!"

Sora looked down sadly, "I . . . I just don't want him to have to worry so much. I really want to be a Huntress . . . I want to be a hero, and fight to protect my world and everyone in it."

Roland laughed softly, "I think that this might worry him even more, I know it's hard proving to parents that you can do this, but you need to realize that they're just worrying over you because they love you. I know they are stressed enough about letting your older brother go to Atlas Academy so far away tomorrow afternoon. It's almost a full day away by airship, and even if it is the major academy he's earned a spot in to become a Huntsmen, they're still worried sick about him. You're the only child they have left with just a year to go at combat school."

Sora sighed, "I know I know . . . I just want to try to make enough money and get the reputation to go to Beacon Academy in the kingdom Vale."

"Is that so," asked a new voice. A man in a dark black coat with a black vest, green sweater, gray hair and glasses walked up from a few police cars with a cup of coffee in his hand. "Thank you officer, I'd like to have a moment to talk to her if that's alright." The new man asked. The officer didn't seem to even resist as he turned around and left without another word. "So, you want to go to Beacon Academy you say?" The man asked with interest.

"It's my dream school! I've always wanted to become a Huntress and attend there, my brother told me all about it when some of his upperclassmen friends went there! But um . . . Who are you exactly?" She asked.

The man perked up at hearing Sora's dream to get into one of the major academies in the world of Remnant. "You don't know who I am?" He asked with a small smile and tired eyes.

"No? Are you famous? I don't really remember famous people too well." Sora said nervously.

"I am Professor Ozpin."

"… Wait… What?" She asked with shock.

"Hello," he answered back.

"THE PROFESSOR OZPIN?! THE HEADMASTER OF BEACON?!" Sora suddenly shouted with both shock at not noticing him, and awe at finally noticing him.

"Again, Hello. . . You really want to get into my school?" He asked her.

She looked up with a flaming passion in her eyes, "It's been my lifelong dream ever since I heard the stories about Huntsmen and Huntresses, and their adventures in defeating monsters."

Ozpin took a sip from his mug and thought to himself. "You're absolutely certain you want to go to that school?" Sora nodded, "My big brother Fenris is already attending Atlas since he's always been a military kind of guy, so I figured I'd go to one that fits me and Beacon just sounds so cool! I mean I can't compete with my big brother and his grades or skill, but I'm just wanting to go to Beacon so badly because being a Huntress would just be so cool! I mean I want to see new things, go on adventures and just . . . You know, just have fun and get stronger! Being a Huntress and helping people while looking so called would just be," She squealed at the thought of being one and stared at Ozpin with wonder, "There are no words!"

Ozpin smiled and laughed, "Well listen . . . I have an interesting proposition for you and your family to hear out. . . First, I want you to go home and pack your belongings."

Sora looked up confused, "Pack . . . My belongings?"

Ozpin nodded, "Just in case, you see Sora I believe one of your skill and passion is what would fit in with my academy. So I would like to invite you to join right away, and as students all across the kingdoms leave tomorrow, I need to talk to your parents right away about it."

"I GET TO GO TO BEACON?!" Sora asked excitedly.

"Indeed, tomorrow you'll just need to go to the station and board the airship to Vacuo, technical difficulties have made it to where you and a few other ships will be picking up students there before heading to Beacon Academy in Vale. It'll be a long trip, so pack your things." He turned to walk away, but looked back before getting too far, "By the way, it's a good thing you wanted to go to my school, any other and I would have kept my mouth shut. Do you need a ride home?

"I can get home just fine."

Ozpin nodded, "Very well, stay safe, Sora." He began to walk off and as soon as he was out of sight, Sora jumped in the air with excitement.

"Oh wow! I'm going to be going to Beacon academy! Oh my god this is so awesome!"

She giggled with joy as she laughed with sheer excitement while running off into the night towards the city, not once ever looking back.


	2. Chapter 2 The Rogues

Chapter 2: The Rogues

Inside an armored vehicle sat a couple of armed figures masked head to toe in light white armor, military styled clothes, and Grimm masks with an animal head on the back of their uniform. The animal head was colored like blood and had three claw marks running down it. Six of the figures loaded their rifles while one sharpened her spear blade. She wore no facial protection like the other soldiers around her, as did the young man behind her. The young man accidentally stood in front of the girl's line of sight to look out the back window, and caught her attention as she looked up. Two long fox ears perked up as she saw him, "Cyrus? Are you ok? Where are your weapons?" The man turned around and showed short snow-white hair and deep blue eyes. From the top of his head poked out two white wolf ears with black tips, one on each side.

He pulled back on the short white cloth that laid around his hips from where they were tied on his belt. He revealed to her his two tonfas, one on his right and another at his left hip. "I'm ready, are you ready as well, Elizabeth?"

She stood up and brushed her long brown hair back as her brown fox like ears twitched a bit with excitement. "The White Fang is always ready, isn't that right brothers?" She blinked her bright emerald green eyes and smiled confidently at their comrades. The other soldiers held up their guns and nodded before going back to preparing.

Cyrus sat down and sighed softly. A soldier walked up in front of him, "Pardon me sir, but I need to give you the briefing if you're ready." Cyrus nodded. "We'll be doing a smash and grab first . . . Squads will hit in short waves, then move to their next objective area . . . There's some valuable cargo that the top boss wants, and once we find it we are to move towards the next objective point with Squads Gamma, Epsilon, and Opal . . . As squad Full-Moon, we'll be carrying the package with us and then boarding the train while squad Opal provides cover as we move."

"They expect us to smash and grab, then hijack a train?"

"The package is said to be worth a lot of credits, weapons, and machinery."

"It had better be worth it . . . This is a huge risk we're taking."

The vehicle they were encased within bounced around, and a speaker blared off, "Alright you guys, get ready to dismount and hit the target, grab the package, then move on while Opal squad covers your retreat." Cyrus stood up, and Elizabeth followed. He readied his tonfas, and stood behind three of the soldiers with him. "Ready gang . . . Doors opening in ten seconds!" The speaker shouted. The world seemed to slow down as the vehicle pulled to a stop. A silence washed over the vehicle, and Cyrus held his breath as he waited in anticipation of what carnage was to come.

The back doors fell open and the sound of gunfire ripped through the air as the soldiers charged forward. The first one out was instantly shot and fell to the ground as the others jumped over him and charged a large warehouse building guarded by what seemed to a small army of mercenaries. Cyrus jumped over the body with Elizabeth in tow, and he charged forward past the tidal wave of gun fire till he got behind a concrete wall. He vaulted over with Elizabeth following, and he got up close and personal with four of the mercenaries. One dropped his gun and slashed at Cyrus with a sword, but Cyrus jumped up and kicked him with both feet, projected himself back into a roll, and stood up in one fluid motion with his tonfas in hand and at the ready.

He engaged the others that surrounded him, while Elizabeth leapfrogged over him, "Surprise!" She shouted as she slammed down on one of them and moved forward towards another group.

Cyrus ducked under the one of the mercenaries that swiped at him with a club, and he hit him with a shotgun blast to hoist him into the air. Cyrus then kicked the mercenary and sent his body flying into the final of the four mercenaries he fought with. He looked over on top of some makeshift elevation at a mercenary manning a 50. Cal. Turret; "Oh no you don't," Cyrus shouted as he sprinted forward.

The man readied the machine gun and opened fire at Cyrus who dodged left and right with incredible speed. The mercenary adjusted his goggles as he fired on ward, "GET SOME! GET SOME! FILTHY FAUNUS!" He shouted at Cyrus. Cyrus leaped over him, curved his body sideways, and shot the man point blank. His body moved the turret to fire on the warehouse front door, throwing its doors wide open. Elizabeth caught up with Cyrus with a smile. "Got you now, you Faunus are going to pay!" A voice shouted from inside the warehouse. A massive robotic skeleton jumped forward from the opening and landed on the ground hard. At the center of the shielded cockpit of the hulking machine was a human man controlling it and moving various levers to aim all six of the chain guns at the soldiers.

It fired all guns and killed four soldiers before turning its attention to Cyrus and Elizabeth. Above the robotic skeleton, a single gun turret appeared on the roof of the warehouse. It shot off a cannon blast and blew up one of the vehicles Cyrus and Elizabeth came in. Elizabeth looked to Cyrus who nodded. She ran and jumped up while Cyrus jumped under her, and pushed her forward towards the warehouse with all his strength. Elizabeth soared through the air with a grin right before she impaled the turret's main gun, grinned mischievously while staring at the operator, pulled her spear out, and swopped it under the gun to cut it off from the rooftop. "Goodbye!" She shouted before kicking it off the building.

The robotic skeleton shot up at her, "Damn you! Nobody kills my buddy!" He shouted as he continued to shoot all main guns at her. She took cover and Cyrus took action.

He jumped towards the building, and kicked off it to go as high as he could. The warehouse roof caved from the machine shooting it, and Elizabeth rolled forward from losing her balance. She landed right in front of it, and looked up to see the robotic skeleton aiming all its guns at her. "You stupid animal, I'll make you pay for hurting my friend!" The guns began to rev and Elizabeth looked up. She pointed to the sky and the man looked up as well. Cyrus landed hard on the glass and sent cracks all along side of it. "What the hell? This is bomb proof glass! You can't crack it that easy!"

Cyrus silently smiled, pulled his tonfas out, and aimed both short sides at the man. "It's easy when you try." He said before squeezing the handles and shooting off one shotgun blast each, jumping into a backflip, and landing perfectly as the machine stumbled back from the force and fell to the ground with fried circuits.

Cyrus pointed inside, "Soldiers! Secure the package inside, hurry; we'll watch for any more of them!" He ordered.

Four soldiers nodded and moved in quickly. Smoke, rubble, bullets and blood littered the front of the warehouse. Cyrus took a moment to exam the area around them, and noticed they were in an isolated area in the outskirts of the city. "Why would we come here?" He thought to himself. A bullet whizzed near his head, and he ducked behind a concrete wall as more mercenaries appeared from nearby buildings. He fired off a few shotgun blasts before ducking and reloading. He looked back as his comrades returned, but he tensed up as he saw a scroll in one of their hands. "We came for a scroll?!" Cyrus asked himself with disbelief.

However, before he could say anything, he looked up front to see their ride honking at them, "Squad Full-Moon let's move! Squads Gamma and Epsilon are already at their next objective!" Cyrus shook his head and took after them. They loaded up, and he looked down the road to see more mercenaries speeding up after them, but the apparent Opal squad propelled from a dirt road to their right and smashed into the lead car, and caused it to stop as they all opened fired at each other. Cyrus ducked inside as the doors closed and the car sped off towards the city. "What is that?" Cyrus demanded to know from the soldier holding the scroll, but the soldiers gave him no answer as they opened the windows and fired back at some cars that had gotten past Opal squad.

After a few short moments, they arrived at an open area near train tracks, and Cyrus looked around as squads Gamma and Epsilon had already taken up cover in some foliage near the tracks. He listened and heard the train coming, "Come on Cyrus, hide," Elizabeth whispered to him quite loudly. He looked down to see her hiding behind some bushes, and he moved in next to her. The train roared as the lead car sped past them with incredible speed.

"Go!" A voice on the radio of a nearby soldier ordered. The soldiers quickly moved and jumped on the train despite its speed, but a few weren't as lucky as the quick moving behemoth plowed them back off its hulking metal body and into the ground. The soldiers became the hijackers of the train, and they were greeted by more highly organized troops apparently waiting for them.

The hijackers engaged and managed to get a few to fly off the train, but without good cover the hijackers were shot off the train as they tried to fight back against the organized soldiers. More troops poured out of the train to engage the hijackers, and a few shots ripped through the air towards Cyrus and Elizabeth. Elizabeth dodged left, right, and then twirled to her left again like a ballerina, and she did so while laughing and playing around like a child. Cyrus backed up a few steps as he blocked bullet after bullet on is metal tonfas. "Elizabeth, Cobra strike, now" he shouted. She saluted with a giggle, but ducked slightly while looking up after a bullet narrowly grazed the top of her head. She made her way to him, and Cyrus took a knee, readied his shotgun tonfas, and let Elizabeth slide her spear into one of the gun barrels within the blink of an eye. He fired off a shot, and the spear burst forward, ripped through the enemy soldier's cover, and caused the three soldiers behind it to fall off the train. Elizabeth jumped forward, grabbed her spear, and took cover behind some rubble as more troops fired at them. "This is not what I expected!" She shouted at Cyrus as he took cover on the opposite side of her.

Cyrus took a quick look and backed up into cover as a bullet narrowly missed his head, "This isn't how it was supposed to be. . . Remember a while back we heard how another had left the White Fang? That guy, Adam, his apprentice." Cyrus asked her now that their comrades were nowhere near them.

"Uh-huh? Why?"

"I think she had the right idea."

Elizabeth smiled at him, "I'm with you wherever you go!" She cheered.

"Alright. . . Ready for this?" He asked. She readied her spear with a grin, and they both closed their eyes, "Our semblance. . . Let's go, Syncro!" They both shouted together as they opened their eyes. A blue and green energy seemed to flow through them as they moved at the same time, out into the wave of gunfire that pounded down at the open killing field of the train they ran across. They both charged head on, Elizabeth flipping and sliding, twirling and vaulting to avoid bullets, all while laughing cheerfully. Cyrus blocked and dodged left and right with seemingly no effort, and as a bullet flew past his defenses, he kept his cool as a flash of green blocked the bullet in an instant right before it could touch his face. Elizabeth smiled as she twirled her spear fluidly through one of her flips and caught the bullet that nearly killed him. These fluid blocks and covers flowed continuously as Cyrus blocked for Elizabeth and dodged when he could, or Elizabeth dodged and blocked the shots that found their way past Cyrus' defenses.

"Cease Fire" shouted a voice.

Cyrus stretched open his arms, and his tonfas changed into two model 1887 lever-action shotguns, modified to semi-auto fire without a lever. He aimed them at the soldiers, and Elizabeth readied her spear. A large soldier without a helmet walked forward onto the killing ground. His short gray hair, toned muscular body, rigid facial features, and burned left half of his face showed countless years of fighting experience. His armor was the same as the others, urban camo with a bulletproof vest on the outside adorning his chest. "This is your one warning kids, get off the train now! It's going to mean big trouble if you mess with this cargo and don't hand over what you already stole . . . So hand over the precious goods you took and then kindly get the fuck off!" He ordered loudly while crossing his arms.

The troops cheered for their officer, "Take those animals down Captain Bullhorn!" One shouted.

"Show them what it means to mess with the 75th Bull platoon!" Another shouted.

Cyrus cocked his guns and frowned as Elizabeth grinned. "I'm afraid we can't do that, Human," Cyrus replied while keeping his cool. "I have questions to my own commander about it, so I'm sorry to say that we'll be taking the train," he added calmly.

Captain Bullhorn grunted, "Your funeral then, dog," he scoffed while ripping off his military shirt to show a white muscle shirt over his steel-like muscles. Dog tags hung from his neck with a bullet-hole through one, "I've never lost a fight before, and neither has my brother." He got into a boxer's stance and grunted, "Bull-shark, show them we mean business!" Cyrus raised his brow and then gasped as an explosion erupted from behind them. A heavily armored figure burst up from the train cart and landed a few meters away from them. It looked up to show a shark face painted on its helmet, and a massive minigun in its hands. The eight barrels began to rev and spat out bullets at incredible speed. Cyrus dove out of the way, and Elizabeth went prone before log rolling to the side to avoid the captain, who stomped down and dented the reinforced metal on the train where she once was.

Cyrus fluidly sidestepped through the hail of gunfire towards the minigun holder called Bull-shark. Bull-shark growled and swayed the gun to continue chasing Cyrus with a stream of bullets. Cyrus finally closed in, put his tonfas side by side, and smacked it down on Bull-shark's head, then swung up to stagger the man back. Bull-shark shook his head, tried to lift his gun up, but grunted as Cyrus jumped forward and kicked him with both feet. Cyrus changed his weapons back into their 1887 shotgun form, aimed both barrels down as his feet began to push off of Bull-shark, and he shot off two blasts to send Bull-shark flying off the edge of the train. He turned around just in time to duck as Elizabeth flew over him and rolled over, jumped up, and readied herself again with a grin. "He's good," she said with excitement before wiping away some blood from her lip.

Bullhorn glared at them with shock and hatred as he regained his boxing stance without wiping away the blood from a cut on his forehead. "You're going to pay for my brother Bull-shark! You FUCKING ANIMALS!"

Bull-horn charged forward and Cyrus tensed up, "Elizabeth, Sync with me again, then we'll use form thirty-two!" She nodded at his request and tensed up before shouting with him, "Let's go, Syncro!" They shouted as a new sense of adrenaline appeared to course through their bodies. Bullhorn's right arm seemed to expand with muscle as he threw down his fist and smashed where Cyrus and Elizabeth stood, but they were nowhere to be seen, and his own fist had utterly decimated the reinforced metal. Bullhorn pulled his fist out of the train cart and turned as he heard one of them reappear behind him. He turned to see Elizabeth throw down a kick, but Bullhorn was able to take it as he twirled around and readied himself again. Cyrus reappeared next to Elizabeth, and they spoke together as one, "Form thirty-two, Wolf and Fox!" Cyrus burst forward.

Bullhorn laughed, "Taking on a boxing champ like me head on? You really are stupid animals!" He stopped as he felt a burst of pain in his back.

Bullhorn looked back to see Elizabeth smiling as she kicked him forward, "Quick like a Fox," she muttered with a grin as her fox ears stayed perked up high.

Bull-horn slowly went wide eyed, "So fast," he thought as he turned forward just in time to feel Cyrus's powerful punch contact his gut.

"Powerful like a Wolf!" Cyrus forced all his power into his punch, and sent Bullhorn flying off the train to join his brother in death. Their victory was short lived as the soldiers fired down at them from above. Still in Sync mode with one another, they dodged left and right. Cyrus frowned, "Heavy! Get up here and take them down!" Cyrus shouted.

A hijacker with a bit of metal armor and a protective gas mask version of the Grimm mask moved forward, and kneeled down by some cover a few meters behind Cyrus and Elizabeth. He aimed a rocket launcher at the last barricade of defending soldiers and shot it off towards them. Cyrus sidestepped out of its way, and Elizabeth flipped to the side, slowly looking down at the rocket narrowly passing her head, and smiling at it with a laugh. The rocket found its way into the barricade and eliminated the last of the defending troops in sight. The last of the hijackers moved up as well and began securing the surrounding area.

Cyrus looked around to see out of their initial troopers; only about a fourth remained at the top. Three came up to Cyrus and Elizabeth. The one in the center bowed his head and saluted. "Commander Cyrus Wolf, Captain Elizabeth Longshot."

Cyrus nodded, "At ease brother, what do you have to say?"

The soldier dropped his salute and nodded, "We've secured the top section, but there's no telling what's inside this carts. Permission to make a suggestion sir," he asked formally. Cyrus nodded and the soldier pointed back, "We have wounded right now, so only some troopers on the topside are ready for more action, plus you two gives us a better advantage . . . However, we lost contact with squads Gamma and Epsilon down below. My suggestion is that we secure the top eight carts, since that's where all the most valuable items of interest are likely being held, items such as Dust and weapons, and then cut off the last sections behind us. We troopers can handle most of it, but we need help taking the conductor's cart."

Cyrus nodded, but an explosion and some screaming caused them to look back and see two hijackers firing back at something coming up from the rear end of the train. Bullets cracked as the two ran for safety, and one was shot with a storm of bullet, causing her to moan in pain as she flew off the train. Her friend turned and fired off a few rounds in anger, but a swarm of bullets practically consumed him and flung him off the train as well. The surviving members took cover where they could, but another flew off the train as an energy blast ripped through her body. "What the hell is doing that?" An officer of the normal troops shouted. Cyrus looked up over the cover and saw a hulking spider like machine with at least a dozen external chain guns, a bright red central eye guarded by an energy shield/prototype laser, four heavy cannons around the eye, and reinforced armor plating all around its body. The mechanical pet of Death slowly made its way forward, seemingly unstoppable.

Cyrus nodded as he stared down at where he sat, dumbfounded. "Elizabeth," he asked as if causally confused.

She laid her head down on his lap to look up at him, crossed her legs, and poked the tip of his nose, "What is it Cyrus?" She asked with a childish stare of interest.

"They actually sent in the prototype Arachnid unit we've been hearing about."

She blinked and nodded, "Wow . . . We must be really popular huh?" She said casually.

The officer of the normal hijackers fired off his rifle before taking cover as bullets nearly struck him. He then sat back next to them, "That thing must have killed off all of Gamma and Epsilon, and now it's killing off my men, it's got heavy reinforced armor and we don't have the tech to take it down . . . Now would be a really good time for you special agents to help!" He shouted.

Cyrus laughed and patted Elizabeth's head, which caused her to smile with her eyes closed as her ears flopped down on her head, "Yes we are popular aren't we?" He asked while ignoring the officer. "Now how about we give it form Twenty-seven? It's unmanned so go crazy." Elizabeth grinned and sat up, picked up her spear and readied herself.

Cyrus looked over the cover as the Arachnid unit flipped over a hijacker, stabbed one of its legs down into him, and swept another three hijackers off the train before throwing the corpse of the one it had impaled off the train. Cyrus charged forward with a calm gaze, and climbed up one of its legs while avoiding its sweeping arms trying to smack him off. While it was so focused on him, it failed to notice Elizabeth charging forward with a grin. She made her spear change into a serrated two-handed sword, and made the blade begin to spin. "Chainsaw mode" she shouted while running towards the metal beast and dodging its tidal wave of bullets that sprayed everywhere in an attempt to hit Cyrus. The machine finally noticed her, and quickly jerked its eye to face her before it fired all four heavy guns. She gasped in surprise as the shot connected and blasted her back.

Cyrus looked back in surprise, "Eliza-" he stopped as the machine managed to swipe its arms up at him and knock him off into an outer wall of one of the train cars. He shook his head and looked to the side as Elizabeth got back up, covered in some grim from the shot.

"I'm alright! My aura protected me!" She shouted before glaring at the massive war machine before them.

"Form twenty-seven will get it, but we need to actually hold it still." Cyrus said before diving to his right into a roll to avoid the machines claw that attempted to impale him. The machine shook and began to back up as bullets bounced off of it. Cyrus looked back to see the regular hijackers from Opal squad driving alongside the train in two jeeps and firing at the machine, and the heavy from Full-Moon that helped earlier moved up, took position, and fired. Elizabeth stood back up and watched as the rocket made its way towards the machine's center eye, but the machine covered it with its front arms as the rocket nearly made contact with its eye.

Elizabeth gritted her teeth, "This thing is smart!" She shouted as she swung her chainsaw sword back so the head of the blade faced down towards the ground diagonally.

Cyrus looked at it as it blared a loud metallic growl of sorts, "Let's get it, it's now or never, this is our best chance while the others distract it!" He shouted as he sprinted forward. Elizabeth nodded, closed her eyes, and brought her chainsaw blade up and at the ready. She seemed to be gaining power the more she focused on her weapon, and Cyrus attempted to climb up the metallic beast that bucked back and forth to get him off again. Cyrus finally made his way up, and looked back, "Elizabeth" he shouted as he changed his tonfas to their model 1887 form. The machine fired its heavy guns and destroyed the last of Opal squad, and the two cars they drove in were flung off the road after bursting into flames.

Cyrus aimed them carefully, and quickly, and shot down into its back again and again to anger it and make it try to buck him off even more. All while forcing it to kneel on its hind legs down from the sheer force of the blasts. Again the two shouted in harmony, "Form Twenty-seven, Pierced Moon!" Cyrus put all his force into shooting the machine's back, and blasting it with every last shotgun shell he had in his weapons. It kneeled from the force, and Elizabeth sprinted as fast as lighting, slid under it like a baseball player, and sliced her chainsaw through its body. As she reached the middle she jumped inside and began a chaotic rampage inside of it. The machine finally shutdown and collapsed on the train. Cyrus stood on it with a victorious, but calm, smile. Elizabeth used her chainsaw to cut her way out of it and giggled as she began to clean the grime off of her face. "That was fun! Unexpected and not exactly well. . . It didn't feel right. . . But it was still so cool at the end!" She exclaimed.

Cyrus looked back as the majority of their troops were gone, killed and flung from the train. Two remained and looked around with the scroll in one of their hands. "Wait here while Elizabeth and I go secure the front." He ordered the hijackers nodded and took up defense positions. "I want to know what that is we lost so many people for," Cyrus and Elizabeth turned and began to sprint quickly to the front cart.

"Who do you think is covering the front?" Elizabeth asked. Cyrus frowned, stared forward, and thought for a moment. "Yeah you're probably right; it's going to be someone tough I bet!" She continued in a one sided conversation. Cyrus smiled at her and they continued forward.

They stopped after a few seconds and looked down at the front car they were standing on. Cyrus kneeled down and put his hand on the warm metal. He frowned as he thought to himself, and Elizabeth jumped in the air with her chainsaw at the ready, "Let's do this, it's time to cut it open!" She yelled as the serrated blades began to spin once more, "Let's rip it open!" She shouted before digging it into the tough metal. The blades chewed away at the reinforced metal roof, and then she pulled the cord to stop the blades from moving, grabbed the cut part of the roof and threw it off the train. She changed her weapon back into spear mode before grinning happily at Cyrus.

"Well. . . That's one way." He said with an impressed nod.

She jumped down while laughing; Cyrus shook his head in a there-she-goes-again sort of way before following her. The conductor looked forward, seeming not to be bothered by most of his roof being thrown off the train. Elizabeth readied her spear and grinned happily at him. Cyrus stayed in a relaxed position and folded his arms. "Excuse me human, I'm afraid we'll be borrowing this train for a while."

The conductor let go of the wheel and laughed, "Will you now? Well . . . You know I can't let you do that." His very voice caused a chill to rise up Cyrus's spine for some odd reason. The conductor turned around and let the sunlight from the missing roof shine down on him.

He had on a leather brown cowboy hat, dark brown leather duster and faded blue jeans with two ammo belts crossed on him, one going down the right side of his body and another going down the left. He wore a black tactical belt, and a brown leather belt above it to go with his dark green button up shirt and brown boots. He chewed on a toothpick and looked up to show his bright green eyes, however the shadow of his hat shrouded the rest of his face. "I've got a bounty to collect . . . five hundred Lien for every officer looking animal I bag from the White-Fang and bring to my employer. . . Also, an additional three hundred for every member that has taken part in any criminal activities . . . Poaching you monsters is going to make me rich!" He shouted before quickly pulling out two massive magnum pistols and firing off a few shots.

Elizabeth and Cyrus dodged back and forth as he continued to fire off round after round. The ammo belts along his body moving with each shot and loading a new bullet in a smooth fashion, removing the need to reload manually. Cyrus rolled forward and began to attack with his tonfas in a fluid motion of strikes. He aimed for the bounty hunter's arms, legs, chest, and spun back and forth with such amazing speed it was almost like Cyrus was teleporting with each strike. The bounty hunter dodged back and forth, and didn't bother to strike back as he dodged one attack after another, walking back and arching his body to the side or back to avoid getting hit.

Elizabeth laughed as she jumped from the side and slashed down, "Yee-hah!" She shouted as she barely missed. The bounty hunter kicked up, and Elizabeth flipped backwards as she was struck square on the jaw, but Cyrus slid in and tried to strike the bounty hunter.

The bounty hunter jumped to the side, kicked off the wall, and struck Cyrus in the face with his boot. Cyrus grinned as he spun to the side from the force, and reveled Elizabeth grinning while recklessly throwing her head out at him and landing a clean hit. The force from her head-butt sent the bounty hunter stumbling back into the controls. He held his side painfully as he hit the controls hard, but Elizabeth quickly recovered her stance as Cyrus got back up next to her.

The bounty hunter looked up as Cyrus and Elizabeth pointed their weapons at him. He laughed, "Well . . . You animals are good I'll give you that . . . What has it been? How many years since your little organization went on a violent spree? You Faunus are all the same. You're freaks, animals, you're monsters even. Things that could never be considered trustworthy!"

Elizabeth glared and Cyrus only blinked. "Save it, your ignorance caused the war a long time ago, as did our own. . . No one is at fault, we wanted to help fix the world."

"By stealing cargo, threatening and killing people? Destroying private property? I swear you fucking animals have a strange way of fixing the world, then again I guess that's why it's broken in the first-"

The bounty hunter stopped talking as Elizabeth pushed her blade against his throat, "Can I shut him up?" She asked with an angry frown.

"Yeah, prove you're a monster." The bounty hunter said with a grin.

"No," Cyrus interrupted, "We won't go to his level, no matter what. . . Elizabeth." Cyrus said as he kept his guard up.

Elizabeth seemed disappointed, but didn't argue as she pulled her spear back a few centimeters.

The bounty hunter quietly pushed a button under the control panel behind him as he smiled, "Well kid, all these years I've been hunting your kind . . . This is the first time I've ever seen fighting like that before."

Cyrus kept his guard up, but Elizabeth lowered her weapon and grinned, "You hear that Cyrus? Respect! Finally someone acknowledges my skills with a spear."

The bounty hunter laughed, "I meant skills as a criminal, dog."

Cyrus cocked his shotgun tonfas and the bounty hunter raised his hands up to his face in surrender. "What's your name then bounty hunter?"

The bounty hunter grinned, "My name isn't of any concern, what matters is I've been in this business longer than you, hunting Faunus and humans alike, and I never lose out on a contract."

Cyrus nodded, "Well then . . . Mr. Bounty Hunter, I'm going to have to ask you to hand over this train."

The bounty hunter nodded slowly, "Right . . . So is there anything else you'd like to demand of me? Maybe my wallet or the clothes off my back? What'll be criminal?"

Elizabeth gritted her teeth, but Cyrus remained calm. "Your train will suffice, thank you."

A robotic voice played from the control panel and interrupted Cyrus from continuing, "Override complete, Control system data has been wiped, thank you for using our transportation to safely move your product, we hope you have a wonderful day." Cyrus opened his eyes wide and the bounty hunter lifted himself up on the controls with his hands in order to kick Cyrus and Elizabeth both back with his feet.

He ran for the emergency exit and ducked under Elizabeth's quick thrust as she tried to strike him before fully recovering her stance. He shot off the locks and turned around while hanging on to the side. The air rushed out in a ripping current, and he smiled while holding and tipping his hat, "Hope you like the sound of a train wreck!" he shot a grappling hook out of his right magnum, and quickly pulled himself out of the train and towards a nearby railing high above it.

Cyrus stumbled forward and looked over the controls. "No, no, no . . . Oh no this is really bad! Elizabeth! Call for extraction! Get the troopers out of here!"

She looked at him confused, "Cyrus? What's wrong?" He began to push random buttons and pull a few levers.

"That guy, he wiped all the data from these control panels! There's no way to tell it to stop!"

She raised an eyebrow, "But we don't want it to stop, right?"

Cyrus sighed, "We need to stop soon! We're already nearing the LZ! If we can't stop we'll miss them and eventually crash into something!" He shouted rapidly.

She stared off into space and blinked twice. "Uh . . . Can you explain that again? I wasn't listening too well," she said with a giggle.

Cyrus thought for a minute and blinked twice before finally looking at her, "We can't stop so we're going to crash into something, lots of fire, explosions, it'll be a real mess."

Elizabeth stared dumbfounded for a moment, but finally widened her eyes slowly, "Oh . . . Ok." She said while dragging on her 'oh' for a lengthy period of time.

"So call Hawk and tell him we need to get the troopers out of here." Cyrus said while putting a hand on his forehead. She nodded with a smile and pulled a radio out of her shirt pocket, "Hello Hawk? Hi! Yes you see . . . Well some guy broke the controls and now we need some help, can you fly over here and pick up the little soldier guys?" She asked cutely as Cyrus tried to fix the controls. "Ok thanks! Goodbye!" She let go of the button and put it back in her pocket before walking over to Cyrus.

Cyrus laid down and opened the panel beneath the controls. He began to mess with the wires with a nervous expression. "What'cha doing?" Elizabeth asked while looking down at him curiously.

"Did you call Hawk?" He asked nervously. She twirled around in circles with her arms stretched out, and almost seemed to be like a child who pretended to be an airplane. "Yeah . . . He told me something about a two hundred lien fee before pick up could be done for us . . . What does that mean?"

Cyrus rolled his eyes as he messed with the wires, "It means that Hawk is going to have a black eye for being so greedy."

Elizabeth sat down and stared at Cyrus, "Oh? Ok . . . That sounds like fun . . . So what are you doing?"

Cyrus smiled softly as he continued to work, "Well I'm trying to see if I can re-wire some of these buttons and levers so maybe we can force the train to brake as we come up to the LZ." She blinked and got down on her stomach, put her arms under her chin and crossed her legs in the air, "Oh . . . So you're going to stop us from crashing?" Cyrus nodded, "I hope to try."

Elizabeth tilted her head to see better and smiled, "Well I know you will! You always do really well at what you're doing so I know you'll be able to stop it." She said before looking up and blinking at the sight of a blockade armed troops in the distance. "Oh hey! Looks like the welcome wagon is up ahead and ready for us!" She said while a happy smile while pointing at the troops getting bigger as the train rapidly approached them.

Cyrus laughed, "Wait what?" Cyrus asked as he looked up at her.

"I can see our other people up ahead! They're getting closer and waving around. I think they want us to stop?" She asked curiously.

"Oh shit," Cyrus said as he turned his attention back to the panel. A spark suddenly shot off and Cyrus pulled his hand back while wincing. "Damn," he muttered before he got up as the computer came back on.

"System rebooted . . . All systems except for drone security, cable clamps, and GPS are deactivated, please stop at your earliest convenience to make needed repairs." The automated voice said. Elizabeth jumped up with joy and Cyrus calmly took control of the lever that read brake. The city had left them behind, and up ahead in the middle of the forest was a blockade of White-Fang troops. Cyrus cranked down on the brakes and the train screeched as it began to slow down. A few moments later it stopped and the soldiers ahead of them cheered as the train approached the blockade.

Cyrus sadly smiled out at them through the one-way glass. "Elizabeth . . . Are you sure you're ready to go through with this? I know you're a bit. . . Out there . . . But you know I'm talking about leaving the White-Fang right? There's no turning back if we do."

She looked at him, put her arms behind her back and smiled, "You mean once we do, as long as I'm with you I'm happy no matter what."

Cyrus smiled at her optimism. "Then you see that fast airship over there? The fast one," he said while pointing at the only grounded vessel amongst three aerial gunships.

Elizabeth nodded with excitement, "Yeah, it's a cool looking thing."

Cyrus smiled and nodded, "Go and sneak up into it, take over the controls and carefully let the pilots down to the ground . . . I'll distract these troops and find out what it was we stole . . . Who knows, maybe we can at least know we did a good thing before we left. Give me a signal once you have it secured. . . Sound good?" He asked her sternly. She saluted playfully and giggled before jumping out of the train and greeting a few soldiers.

Cyrus hopped out and a few troops bowed to him in respect. One man with short slick blonde hair and piercing blue eyes walked up to him. A long slender cat tail bobbed over his ead, and he smiled with a nod. His bangs covered his left eye, but nonetheless he had the shining appearance of youth about him, as well as an atmosphere of death. "Commander Cyrus Wolf . . . You're success here has set our operations forward at an unbelievable pace. The White-Fang, thanks you."

Cyrus smiled and bowed his head slightly in respect, "Thank you General Garret . . . However, I lost a lot of good men and women on this operation . . . Might I know what exactly it is that we acquired? I was under the impression we were securing valuable cargo, not stealing a scroll of some sort."

The general gave a gruff laugh and nodded, "You're one of our greatest soldiers Cyrus; you've earned that much honor of the title, but do not ask too many questions." The general walked past him and Cyrus looked at the helicopter to see Elizabeth hiding the unconscious pilots in some nearby bushes. She ran into the pilot seat and Cyrus turned around to the see the general taking the scroll.

Cyrus cleared his throat, "With all due respect sir, my soldiers died to secure whatever that is; I think I should know."

"You know what you are allowed to know."

"Sir, please, what did they die for?" Cyrus blurted out.

"Your men died to secure. . . Information." General Garret responded with an annoyed tone.

"Information?" Cyrus asked with disbelief.

"Yes . . . Information on Dust shipments, as well as targets for our grand operation that will lead us straight to victory through the deaths of every last human in all the kingdoms." The General said with a smile.

"Civilians? Sir? But…. For what purpose?" Cyrus asked with a bit of shock.

"I know you've been with us since the beginning Cyrus. . . You and your friend Elizabeth came to me as starving orphans who had lost their parents to humans. . . Don't you want to strike back at them like our brothers and sisters?"

"Sir! There is no honor in this!" Cyrus shouted at him.

A few regular soldiers looked at him suspiciously. The general turned around and glared, "Honor? What do these humans know of honor? They treat us like animals despite all the promises of equality; they treat us worse than their garbage . . . This is simply a piece towards vengeance, Commander . . . Now know your place and shut up in front of your superiors unless spoken too, that is a direct order!" Cyrus tensed up as he saw the blood of his comrades, of the people he killed, drenched upon his heads, so much to where his hands were almost too heavy to keep up.

Cyrus pulled his shotgun tonfas out and shook his head, "Information . . . . Information was worth the lives of my men . . . My friends?" He muttered under his breath. "No," he whispered as he tightened his hands into fists. All the suffering he had endured, the constant fighting, death and loss, danger he had willingly entered as he thought the new leader was right in what they proclaimed to do. He looked up as the soldiers watched the train just as the General, and all around them he saw an army of the dead. An army of the ones he had killed in his time, countless humans both young and old, people he had slaughtered with the thought of vengeance in his mind, people whose fires he had snuffed in an effort to null the pain in his heart. They vanished into shadows, and Cyrus turned his back to the general before slowly walking towards the airship. "If we are to be monsters, why hide behind the masks, I will let the world see a true monster," Cyrus whispered as he neared the airship. "I will show the world the face of the truest monster, of a killer . . . I will show them hands that have been drowned in the blood of innocents . . . And I will show them," Cyrus muttered as he stepped into the airship, "What it looks like when that monster."

The airship began to slowly hover up, causing the General to look back in slight surprise. "Commander Wolf? COMMANDER WOLF?!" General Garret shouted as he took a step towards the ship slowly rising above the skies. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET DOWN HERE NOW!" General Garret shouted.

"Seeks to atone for its sins," Cyrus finished before looking back with nothingness for General Garret. Nothing, no love for having been saved by him, no hate for having been used by him, no pain for drowning in a sea of lies and blood by him, and of course no joy for having been a part of a family because of him. Cyrus looked at General Garret with true nothingness, for his first and only hope was truly nothing but a glass statue of hate, a monument to the disease of vengeance.

Elizabeth flew up into the air and Cyrus turned fully to look at the General. "You damn traitors! Come back here! You cowards!" General Garret shouted up at him.

"Get us out of here, Elizabeth. We're not going to be his toy soldiers anymore." She nodded and jerked her thumb up in confirmation. The ship turned flew away from the blockade as General Garret cursed out at the both of them.

"Where are we going Cyrus?" Elizabeth asked as he stood next to her. He moved up further and sat down in the co-pilot seat next to her. "We're going to become heroes and do good. . . Me and you Elizabeth . . . Let's go to the Kingdom of Vale . . . I know someone who can get us into Beacon Academy there. Then we start our new lives."

Elizabeth smiled and nodded, "Ok then! Let's do it!" She jerked the lever and made a sharp turn, laughed, and then began to fly smoothly over miles of blooming forest.

"Since we're currently near the Kingdom of Mistral, let's head there first. There's supposed to be an airship that leaves for Vacuo from there, at least that's what I recall from some reports we had . . . After that we can board it and make our way to Vale, I want to be safe and ensure no one follows us, maybe all those flights will confuse them." Cyrus suggested. She nodded and continued their course. Cyrus began bandaging his wounds, and he looked back at where the child was, "I swear . . . I will atone for my crimes, me and Elizabeth both," he thought to himself.


	3. Chapter 3 The Seeker

Chapter 3: The Seeker

Snow fell from the sky as sharp winds slashed through the air like frozen blades. Clouds blocked out the sky, making it difficult to tell what time of day it was. Walking along the road was a figure in a heavy black coat with the insignia a strange ruin on its back. It removed its hood to show a girl with medium length dark brown hair, bright orange colored eyes and a thin scar on her upper right cheek. Under the coat she wore nothing but a white long sleeved undershirt shirt with a light gray T-shirt over it, and black shorts. She took a bite from a loaf of bread and stopped as she noticed something on the ground. She looked down at some almost invisible footprints in the snow, and shifted the snow aside with her bare feet before she ran her fingers along the sides. She looked at it, frowned before she tasted it, and spit it out before humming with interest. "Beowolf pack . . . An hour old . . . They look like they may have stopped not too far from here." She said to no one in particular. She stood up and let the two swords on her back stick out against her coat.

She looked around for a moment, and finally continued onward into the trees of a nearby forest the tracks led to. She wandered around following various markings such as broken tree branches, footprints, and clawed tree trunks until she finally stumbled upon a pack of werewolves resting in a large clearing. She frowned at the sight of them and counted thirty-two of them wandering around in the visible pack. "There you are . . . You bastards . . . Time to pay." She thought to herself. She looked around and climbed the tree she hid behind. She flipped on her hood and crept forward slowly on one of the branches. She looked down at one of the nearby werewolves. It growled and chewed on its claws, licking away its last meal. The girl swallowed the last of her bread and sighed quietly with relief.

She took a quiet deep breath, closed her eyes, and quietly drew her steel blade. The hilt was colored a deep ocean blue with some sort of crest, similar to the one on her back, burnt on the hilt that was wrapped in bandages, "Relax . . . Calm yourself and analyze the situation . . . I am the snow, still and calm." She opened her eyes and jumped down on top of the Beowolf. It howled in surprise as she dug her blade deep into its chest. The others looked back and howled in anger at the death of their pack mate.

She glared at them, drew a second sword, and jumped forward onto another Beowolf that charged her, stabbing it in the throat and spinning around to slash open the chest of another that lunged at her. One jumped forward and knocked her off its pack mate, but she flipped it over after it landed on both her feet, using its own momentum to throw it off and regain her balance in one fluid motion that showed she was no simple child roaming the woods and hunting beasts.

She used the momentum to let herself slide back towards it before she jumped and put herself on top of the Beowolf. Raising her shining sword up, she quickly stabbed down into its neck. It gurgled in pain and she chopped down her other blade to remove its head before it could survive anymore. The others growled and began to charge from all directions. She glared and holstered her other sword, put the blue hilted one's blade into the palm of her hand and cut it open. Blood seeped out and she threw it out in front of her.

The girl closed her eyes and the Beowolves mindlessly starred at her in confusion. "I command you now . . . Legion! Rise and obey me! My semblance demands it!" She cried out.

A glyph formed with her blood in the same shape as the crest on her sword and back, and from that glyph shot out a dark figure in a full suite of black armor that landed on its feet and stood up straight, standing almost eight feet in the air. In its right hand was a long rod with a huge spiked flail in the shape of a skull. In its left was a massive tower shield with the same symbol as the girl's sword on the face of the shield. Its hollow looking eyes flashed the same orange color as the girl that summoned it. Its helmet, however, was in the shape of a Grimm mask, yet it seemed capable of more than just obedience to the girl unlike any other Grimm monster. "You called me from my slumber Star, my mistress, how may I serve you?" The figure asked in a hollow yet manly voice as it turned its back to hers.

"Legion . . . As the Rosario family's last standing sentient Grimm. . . I command you to fight against these beasts with me."

The figure nodded, "I, Legion, will do as you command mistress . . . I shall banish these beasts to void they crawled from!" A Beowolf lunged at him, and he dropped his flail, gripped its throat and crushed it in an instant before throwing the body at one of the other pack members.

Star twirled around in the light snowfall that began, her blades cleanly flowing through Beowolf after Beowolf. More entered the fray from the hidden tree line and she frowned as she saw them. She turned around to see Legion swing his flail at three of the beasts jumping at him, smashing them and sending their limp bodies into the snow. One gripped onto his back, and he swung around to get it off. The creature tore off his head and looked inside the armor to see a hollow shell. It howled in frustration, but then barked in surprise as the flail swung around and knocked it off of Legion's body. "Get off of me you filthy animal!" Legion cried out before picking up his head and putting it back on his body. His eyes flashed with battle rage, and he began to violently swing his flail around, killing Beowolf after Beowolf that approached him while hollering a terrifying war cry.

Star ran forward after two more Beowolves. One jumped high into the air to try and pounce on her, but she jumped up and grabbed its jaw, flipped it down and stomped on its back. She used the force to break its back and shoot herself into the air, swords at the ready and already puncturing through the second monster's gut. She spun it around and used it as a shield against other lunging Beowolves. As she landed she holstered her blades, and looked around as six nearby Beowolves fell down to the snow, dead from her quick strikes, and their blood already staining the field of white with crimson. "I'm getting better every day!" She cried out victoriously.

She looked around and saw eight Beowolves left, and Legion had one held by the head. It growled and struggled to free itself, and Legion looked to her as the other Beowolves stared at them in defeat. One Beowolf slowly crawled forward and bowed its head while growling. "This one begs you not to kill the last of its pack mistress, their alpha abandoned them and they have had nowhere to go . . . It offers to leave and says it will leave and never hunt humans again if it and its remaining pack are spared."

"You can understand it?"

"Yes mistress, part of me is as Grimm as these creatures, I am capable of understanding some of these animals . . . However they are all filthy creatures, beneath the level of power I have been granted by your family, and are unable to truly honor a contract like this. . . Then again it is not my place to influence your choice, shall we leave survivors mistress?" Legion asked, but Star drew her finger across her throat and Legion nodded.

He squeezed until the Beowolf stopped moving, then he threw it to the side like a ragdoll amongst its dead companions. The last seven howled and began a final charge. Star launched herself forward, flipped over the first, and landed a strong fatal kick into the skull of the one right behind it. She dodged every claw strike from three that surrounded her, and flipped up to do a handstand on the shoulders of one of them. It growled in anger, but its companions accidentally each clawed its throat in their frustration. Star smiled and pushed herself off of it and flipped forward twice before she landed on her heel right into a second werewolf's skull. A loud crack erupted from it and she leaned back to do a triple handstand before finally standing up.

The last of the three attacking werewolves ripped its claws out of its companion and Star smiled triumphantly. It growled in fury and sprinted forward to her with its claws at the ready. She held her stance and bended her knees while leaning backwards. The Beowolf lunged at her with a claw at the ready, but Star quickly stepped to the side and threw her fist right into its temple with such tremendous force its head flew off into the woods. She shook her hand and grinned before looking to her side at Legion who swung his flail around at the last three Beowolves. He struck one dead, and the others readied themselves to lunge at him. Star charged forward and jumped high into the air. She swopped down like a bird from the heavens, and grabbed both of their heads, slamming them into the hard frozen ground under the soft snow. The Beowolves' bodies shook and then went still. All around them, the Grimm corpses began to vanish, covering their victory in crimson glory.

Star cracked her knuckles and Legion roared in victory, "I could have taken them, but congratulations to you mistress for a decisive victory."

She smiled, "You to Legion, now back you go."

He bowed his head, "I await further orders my mistress." His body melted into shadows and Star bandaged up her hand with some gauze she had in her coat pocket before stretching her arms. She gasped and turned with her sword drawn at the sound of someone clapping. "Whose there?" She called out into the woods.

A man with short gray hair, an old tattered professor's coat, and an ominous blue right eye and silver left eye walked out from the tree line while clapping. "That was a most excellent show of bravery and skill Ms. Rosario . . . Most excellent indeed." She kept her sword at the ready and frowned, "Just who are you stranger? I don't like being snuck up on." The man nodded his head, "Why . . . I'm Professor Fallon . . . William Fallon, I teach at a school far away from here known as Beacon Academy. I was just wondering what someone so young is doing by themselves out in the middle of nowhere."

Star lowered her sword slightly and raised her brow, "You teach at one of those Warrior schools?"

William nodded. "My parents were a Huntsmen and Huntres . . . You know how I can get into your school?" She asked bluntly.

William nodded again "It's why I've come actually." Star holstered her sword and sat down on a rock next to a bloody Beowolf corpse that had yet to vanish. She leaned to the side a bit before pulling out another loaf of bread and chowing down on it.

William laughed, "My, my . . . Hungry are we?" Star broke the bread in half and offered him some. He held up his hand to deny it and she shrugged before devouring it. "I know you aren't a part of another academy . . . I was just wondering myself if you would like to put your skills to use in a field your parents obviously knew well . . . If they were as you proclaim then surely you would like to help people all across Remnant, and slay monsters night and day whenever you wish?"

Star looked up at the snowfall and hummed to herself as she chewed on the bread. She finally wolfed it all down and drank from her canteen, "I'm curious as to how you found me. . . But ok, you had me at killing monsters whenever I want, but I'm not exactly use to working on a team."

William shook his head, "That is the usual problem of our incoming students so you're fine."

She nodded and stood up, "Ok then, I will see you there at Beacon Academy . . . Where is that by the way?"

William pointed in a general direction, "Start walking and you'll make it in five days in the morning if you walk night and day, but students are leaving for their schools tomorrow and all should be there in a few hours at most by airship . . . It's in the kingdom of Vale after all. I'd recommend going to the Kingdom Mistral first, after all it is where you came from, and from there you can board the airship to Vacuo and then the next to Vale in order complete the journey on time."

"Huh? Why can't I just head straight to Vale from here?"

"Technical difficulties will require some ships leaving from Mistral to go and pick up students in Vacuo . . . My apologies on that."

Star nodded and began to march towards where he pointed, "Alright if you say so, I'll see you there then! I'm going to slay millions of beasts!" She cried out as she walked into the hidden tree line and towards the closest kingdom.

William nodded with a confident stare, "I know for sure you will . . . Every chess game needs a rook." He said before going the opposite direction. "Oh well my old rival . . . How fun this little game of cat and mouse will be, but I'm afraid I've bigger plans, please enjoy the rook I'm sending to your enemies." He said with a quiet scoff.


	4. Chapter 4 The Red Mercenary

Chapter 4: The Red Mercenary 

A young man walked alone down the sidewalk of a bright city street during the night. He kept his head faced towards the ground and pulled his hood forward to ensure he had hidden his entire head as he headed towards a loud warehouse with a club like atmosphere. Bass music blared out as the glass doors slide open to let him in, and he looked up slightly to see the dance floor crowded with a variety of people enjoying the nightlife. The young man looked up at a tall muscular bouncer, "Is he here?" The bouncer nodded and the young man handed him a card, "the money as promised . . . Now look the other way," he said as he turned to walk towards the bar located at the opposite end of the clubs entrance. The bouncer slipped the card in his pocket, silently pushed a button under a nearby table, and grinned before he went back to staring at the crowd with folded arms.

The young man sat down next to an older man's right side. The older man was dressed in a dark blue suit with an eye patch covering his left eye. The older man turned to the younger one and gave a single gruff laugh, "Gale Wildheart . . . Or should I refer to you as Nova?"

The young man laughed, "Nova, and you're still looking as ripe as ever yourself, Cyclops."

The older man laughed lightly, "Well then . . . What brings you to my club tonight, Nova? You're underage after all."

They both kept their heads turned towards the bar, and Nova looked up at the bartender, "I'll take one lemonade please . . . with three sugars." The bartender nodded slowly in confusion at an odd drink for a club, but went to prepare his drink regardless; Nova looked back down at the table. "You still haven't answered my question, Nova."

Nova lifted his head but kept looking forward, "I'm just on another job . . . However, I'm also looking for someone . . . A girl, and maybe you've seen her?" He pulled out a photo of a girl in a sharp looking school uniform with the Beacon Academy logo etched above her right breast. She had long blonde hair and, fair skin, bright yellow eyes, and golden colored rabbit ears perked high above her head.

Cyclops nodded for a second and turned to down his drink. "I've seen plenty of girls around here Nova . . . Faunus like you and Human like me. I own a fine assortment of skin all across the city, so take your pick for a replacement . . . No reason for you to go and tie yourself down to just one."

Nova shook his head softly and thanked the bartender for his drink. "She's got answers to some difficult questions I have . . . I need to find her, thanks for your time but if you have nothing to give me," he took a sip and tried to stand up, but Cyclops grabbed his wrist. Nova looked at him with slight confusion.

"Sit down for another minute . . . You've got visitors." Cyclops nodded slightly to his right and Nova craned his neck just enough to see out of his hood. A few men in black suits and red ties all stood around the entrance, or wandered the dance floor. They were all dressed the same; and even shared the same short clean slick black and back hairstyle. Nova slowly sat back down and sipped his lemonade again.

He moved his eyes to Cyclops, "So how exactly did they know I'd be here?" he asked in an unworried tone.

Cyclops smiled, "You've got a bounty on your head Nova, as do I . . . I'm just conducting good business before you try to close my deal."

Nova laughed, "Well, well . . . I never thought you were the kind to go and stab someone in the back Cyclops . . . I thought we were good friends you lying human."

Cyclops laughed, "Are you really in the best position to say that you damn ape? Anyways, I said it was good business . . . I never said anything about it being honest business."

Nova nodded and sipped more of his drink, "Well then . . . What happens now?" Nova asked while putting his glass down on the counter.

Cyclops looked off to the side and thought for a minute, "Well one of two things will happen . . . You'll either be killed and captured or just captured alive and taken to the highest bidder . . . If that's the case then I'll make a nice buck and keep the club running smoothly; that or you'll defeat my hired guns and of course leave me alone as I'm still important to you despite your claim to collecting a bounty on me, and then you'll go off looking for your little Faunus girl. . . I know you all too well Nova, you're a mercenary through and through. I've taught you well."

Nova nodded slowly and downed the rest of his drink, sighed with relief, and smiled down at the bar table. "You know I can't afford to lose here Cyclops . . . We had a good run back in the day, but I guess it's time to say a final goodbye, my old master." He said while standing up again slowly with a smile of relief on his face.

Cyclops kept his soft smile as well, "Nova . . . Just do me one favor alright?"

Nova looked at him in confusion, "I suppose I could try to give you a final request . . . What can I offer my old master?"

Cyclops sighed and downed another drink; "Just don't go destroying my club if you do end up winning."

Nova smiled and closed his eyes before a goon placed his hand on his shoulder, "Alright punk, you're coming with us." Nova whipped around and punched the goon so hard it flung him across the dance floor and into one of the stone pillars. The civilian crowd quickly ran away, leaving behind at least thirty goons that brandished either a sharp sword or powerful looking gun.

The music kept blasting off throughout the club, and a quick beat took over to set the perfect tone for the upcoming fight. "Now this is some good music! Let's do this!" Nova threw off his jacket and drew two hand scythes connected by a long steel chain. Nova's hair was short, and spikey with a fiery red color, as were the color of his eyes, and he wore a short red bikers jacket, white undershirt, a bronze medallion of an elder tree around his neck, bright worn out red jeans, a black leather belt, a silver cross earing on each of his ears, and a black and blue bandana tied around his bright red monkey tail. His skin held a healthy glow, and his fiery red eyes screamed his confidence and joy for the upcoming fight. He twirled one of the scythes from the chain around slowly while grinning at the goons that circled him. "Come on! Have some confidence gentlemen! Otherwise, could you have the common courtesy to step outta my way?" He said while lowering his guard and putting the other of the two scythes not spinning by his hip. Two goons charged him from behind while glaring at him.

Nova grinned and jumped up to twirl around. He swung his foot into the first goon, sent him flying back into the air, and slashed down at the next with amazing form, he then threw one scythe out at the goon he kicked into the air. It wrapped its chain around the goon's body and Nova pulled down to slam the goon into a group of three others. "That was weak! Coming at me from behind? I'm not some drifter you can knock out and rob from behind! Come on, give me some real action!" The goons looked around nervously, but finally one charged forward. His comrades regained some of their confidence and charged towards Nova from all directions.

Nova grinned, "Now that's the way to do it!" He crouched and then jumped high into the air as the goons finally reached arms-length of him. The goons looked up and gasped as the saw him twirl around slowly in the air, "Now then . . . Here comes the fun!" He connected his two hand scythes into a pole, made the pole extend to at least six feet, threw it into the ground, and flew down with it as he held onto one end of the chain. The staff impaled the ground and he kicked off a goon to swing around in a circle by holding onto the chain. He kicked a few and ripped his staff out from the ground to continue his attacks on one goon after the other.

They came left and right, but he swung his pole effortlessly around to smack them away. One cut down, but Nova rolled back while using the goon's momentum to throw him back into one of his comrades. "Eighteen! Nineteen! Twenty! Twenty-one! Twenty-two! Man you guys drop like flies!" He laughed and broke his staff back into two hand scythes. Seven goons remained in front of Nova and looked around at their defeated comrades. "Hey . . . Weren't there thirty of you?" Nova asked while scratching his ear with his right hand scythe.

The eighth jumped towards him with a sword from behind, and Nova quickly turned around, backed up, and extended the chain to block the hit. He jumped into a back flip over the group of seven. "Wow! Now that was good, but now I'm going to," He tried to stretch the chain on his hand scythes but looked down at the broken chain. The other goons grinned as they thought this was some kind of victory on their end. Nova sighed, "Well . . . I hope you realize that the chain was custom made . . . You want to know what happens now?" He tightened his grip on the shafts of the hand scythes. "You break it you buy it! Don't you know the rules?" He yelled angrily.

The goons looked at each other in confusion and readied their weapons before charging forward towards Nova. He clapped his two weapons together and grinned as the two hand scythes lapped over each other and connected to form a cowboy repeater rifle with the chain hanging down from the butt of the gun. "Eight for eight!" He cried out as he shot bullet after bullet. Every shot hit and the goons fell to the floor, dead. "Well that wasn't too hard." He said while resting the rifle over his shoulders.

"Do you always have to do things the hard way to try and show off?" A strange female voice said to him. Nova turned around and smiled brightly as he saw who it was.

"There you are Jasmine! I've been looking for you, where have you been? I got worried after you took off and stopped doing jobs for. . . You know." He said worriedly as his tail perked up

Jasmine brushed her golden hair back and let it flow out gently before returning to rest down her back, while her ears stayed perked up and showed she was happy to see him. "I'm fine Gale . . . Or do you still need me to call you by that ridiculous nickname?" She said as she stood before him in a crisp uniform designed for Beacon academy.

Nova laughed, "I think the days of Nova are over . . . I guess I'll just go by my real name Gale from now on, unless out on a job."

Jasmine laughed, "Well . . . I'm done with this life entirely; I'm going to try to become a Huntress."

Gale looked up at her in surprise, "Leave such a valuable life of riches as a bounty hunter behind to fight and save humans?"

She rolled her eyes, "We can protect Faunus to you know, really show the world that the White-Fang doesn't speak for all of us."

Gale shook his head and laughed, "Please, humans are not worth protecting. And the White-Fang can all go die in a whole for all I care."

"You know, Huntsmen and Huntresses of human origin protect Faunus too." She said while putting her arms behind her back and smiling a bit sadly at him. Gale knew this was true, but turned his back and sighed.

He looked around at the nearly destroyed bar, Cyclops was nowhere to be found. "Well I'm not going to stop you if you end up wanting to throw your life away, Jasmine, but I don't think I can follow you there to any of those academies. They say they keep them in the cities, and you know how I hate being in a city for too long . . . I don't think I can live in a place meant for monster hunters you know?"

Jasmine laughed and put her arms behind her back, "Well I've already been going to a combat school for a while now. I have all my transcripts and everything ready to apply for Beacon Academy all the way in Vale. . . They told me I could leave tomorrow and they would clear everything up along the way there, they gave me my final papers to just fill out with personal information, so I'm guessing they really liked what they saw in my transcripts if they trusted me to get it in on time. . . You know it's always been my dream to go there, to Beacon . . . To adventure away from the Kingdom of Mantle here . . . I know it was just big brother, you, me, and the master while we were growing up, but I want to still make my parents proud wherever they may be . . . I want to help everyone I can you know? I'm sorry Gale. I will miss you." She said while sadly smiling at him.

Gale turned around and looked at her as if she'd been gone already for years, "I know . . . I'm going to miss you . . . You were the best little sister to grow up with."

She shook her head with a smile, "I'm two days younger, don't over sell it." She said with a happy laugh.

Gale joined and after a moment he pulled out his medallion and starred at it for a minute before closing his fist around it. "Hey Jasmine . . . I want to just give you something before you leave." He walked over to her, but the ground next to them shattered and they both jumped back not a moment too soon.

"What the hell was that?" Jasmine yelled out in confusion.

Gale frowned as he saw a tall man of at least eight feet climb out of the hole with a massive hammer in hand. "Hey . . . You were supposed to sink into the hole . . . Or was I supposed to drag you into the hole . . . No one ever reminds me of these things." His voice was deep and bellowing, but he said things in chunks that it almost made no sense.

The hulking man put the hammer, which was really just a chunk of cinderblock on a massive metal rod, over his shoulders and looked down at Gale and Jasmine. "You're the animals I'm supposed to kill . . . Yeah you were them alright . . . Wait no, they said one . . . Oh well I'll just kill both of you." He scratched his baldhead and blinked a few times. Despite his massive size, his eyes were small like a fox's, compared to his elephant like size they seemed almost nonexistent. His muscles nearly ripped through his black suit; it was a miracle he could even find a suit to fit someone of his hulking size. "Here we go," he said lazily while swinging his hammer around and carelessly destroying the club's support beams while trying to strike Gale or Jasmine. They dodged with ease, but the rubble proved difficult to avoid as it crashed around them. Jasmine gasped and jumped out of the way as some rubble barely missed her whole body, but she didn't get far enough as it pinned her left leg in place.

Gale gritted his teeth and flipped over the man, grabbed onto his back and tried to stab into his right shoulder. Gale's hand scythe bounced off even with the amount of force he put into his strike. The man lazily looked back, "Hmm? That's not going to work . . . My muscles are really tough, they give me a lot of protection . . . From people that want to hurt me. So then," he quickly grabbed Gale with an unseen burst of speed, "Do your muscles do the same?" He asked as he held Gale by the foot and dangled him upside down.

"Let go of me you stupid bastard!" Gale hissed at him.

The man blinked and frowned slowly, "Hey . . . That's not very nice, I make not very nice people go far away!" He spun Gale up in the air and swung his hammer in short circles like a baseball bat, "Batter up!" He shouted, and then swung at Gale, struck him, and sent him flying into the bar table, "Homerun!" The man shouted.

Gale crashed into the bar, gasped loudly from the impact as blood was coughed up, and stayed seated with his back stuck into the wall. "Gale!" Jasmine cried out as she pried herself free and stood up to face the behemoth. The man walked past her, "I don't hurt lady rabbit, not yet, you wait your turn; I'm going to kill the mean monkey first."

She drew her long silver sword and readied to strike, but winced as she felt a pain shoot through her left leg. She looked down to see it was swollen, cut up, and bleeding badly. "Did I twist it?" She thought to herself as she tried to put weight on it, only to be met with similar pain. "Why isn't my aura healing it?" She asked in shock.

The hulking man looked back as she asked, "Oh, that's my weapon's trick. It was given to me by my master, and was said to cancel aura," The behemoth bellowed out.

"What?" Jasmine asked in shock.

"I don't know how . . . I know I can kill people with it though," he said before turning to walk back to Gale, "So I'm going to kill the bad monkey." Gale pried himself loose just as the man stood above him, "Now you die." The behemoth blurted out.

Gale tried to stand, but held his head and fell to the ground again from disorientation. Jasmine gripped her sword, "No! I swore to protect everyone I could!" She screamed to herself. "I swore. . . To be a Huntress!" She screamed loudly, but not loud enough for either of them to hear.

Gale looked up in confusion as the man brought his hammer up like bat. "I guess it's time to hit one out of the park!"

"Then do it, you fucking human." Gale demanded. Gale spit blood on the man's shoe, but the man only blinked once and swung the hammer towards him with tremendous speed and force. Gale stared up as the hammer came swinging towards him. "Is this the end for me?" He thought to himself as time began to slow down. "Am I going to die here?" He thought to himself as he remember his days as a child, growing up outside of the kingdoms with his adopted father, brother and sister. "At least . . . One of the family . . . Will do good deeds." He thought to himself before all was shattered. His eyes went wide as he saw a sea of gold cover his vision of the hammer, and felt his body fall to the side. He looked up without moving his head, and saw the familiar kind smile, familiar yellow eyes, and the same long golden hair and creamy golden rabbit ears he had always seen as a child.

Jasmine's body took the full force of the hammer, and was sent flying into a glass table far on the other end of the club. Gale's eyes shook in shock as he saw the whole event unfold. The man blinked a few times, "Hey . . . She got in my way . . . No one gets in my way! I am Hammer!" He shouted in anger. Gale slowly got up and kept his head lowered so his face was shadowed. The man that called himself Hammer looked down at Gale and brought his hammer up again, "Now you will be the one to die!" He shouted as he spun it around like a bat, and finally swung towards Gale's head.

The cinderblock head stopped just as it was about to hit his head, and Hammer looked down in confusion as his weapon wouldn't move. "Hey? What happened? Why can't I move my hammer?" He tried to pull it away, but had no luck. The man looked closer at Gale and grunted in mild confusion, "What the?" He mumbled as he saw Gale holding the cinderblock head with one hand. Gale's fingers dug deep into the stone, and his fingers bled as he gripped it with hallow eyes. "Hey! Let go . . . That's my hammer." Hammer blurted out in frustration as he continued to try and pull it away from Gale's unrelenting grasp.

Gale finally lifted his head and showed fiery anger in his blood red eyes. Hammer choked up slightly, "You . . . You . . . You bastard!" Gale screamed out as he shattered the cinderblock into tiny pieces by squeezing down on it.

Hammer backed up with just the metal rod in hand, "What the? You broke my hammer!" He cried out in fear. Gale rose up to his feet and gripped his weapon still in its gun form. He whipped it up and fired shot after shot into Hammer's massive chest. It pushed him back bit by bit with every shot. He fired off eleven shots before breaking the gun back into two hand scythes, "Now it's your turn to be dropped!" He threw the right scythe at Hammer, and it twirled around his neck tightly.

Hammer scratched at it to try and free himself. "Let me go!" He shouted at Gale.

Gale swung himself up to the man and began to coil the chains around his arms and neck, "Sorry . . . But no one gets in my way, or the way of my friends . . . I am Gale Wildheart, remember it in hell!" He jumped down behind the man and tightened the chains around the behemoth's whole body. "Now fall!" He flipped the man up and smashed him back down the hole he came from. The man's screams became fainter and fainter until finally it seemed like he had fallen through the entire world. Gale holstered his weapons and turned to Jasmine's body in surprise as he heard a weak cough. "Jasmine!" He sprinted towards her and kneeled by her body, "Jasmine . . . Please be ok, wake up . . . Please!" Gale laid her head on his lap and looked down at her in fear.

Jasmine blinked a few times and looked up at him with foggy yellow eyes. "Gale? Where are you . . . I can't see too well . . . Everything's really fuzzy . . . Are you ok? Did we win?" She asked in a very faint and weak voice. The blood from her wounds dirtied her uniform and stained her gold hair and ears with roses of crimson.

Gale smiled sadly and closed his eyes to hold back tears, "Yeah . . . Yeah we won; the big guy is toast."

Jasmine laughed softly, "As long as he wasn't too hurt."

Gale looked at her in confusion, "What? Jasmine he . . . He hurt you so much! Why would you care about him?"

Jasmine sighed softly, "He's still a living being . . . All living beings deserve another chance no matter what . . . Promise me that you'll behave around others, Gale . . . Please promise me that ok?"

Gale blinked in confusion, "What do you mean? I'm always going to be a bit hateful at the core . . . That's why you're here right? You're going to pull through this and be the good one . . . A great student and a Huntress even . . . Right? We're Yin and Yang, you and I Jasmine . . . Me and big brother are already too gone but you . . . You got a new life to live. . . We're family so don't act like you're going to leave me behind . . . Please Jasmine . . . I don't want to lose my family again." Gale felt a tear fall from his cheek, and it splashed on Jasmines eye, only to slide down her face as if it were her own tear.

She cupped his cheek and he looked down at her still foggy eyes. She smiled softly, "Found you . . . The lights must have gone out after I got hit right?"

Gale looked down at the dark red blood on his hands, blood that came from the wound on her head. "Yeah . . . Yeah the lights went out. It's really dark right now," he lied.

Jasmine smiled at him and sighed, "Gale . . . Promise me you'll give people a chance . . . Human and Faunus . . . I know you won't like it, but please try for me . . . Go and help people in the world . . . I know you don't want to be a Huntsmen, so please just help who you can. . . That's my . . . That's my final wish."

Gale sniffled and tried to hold back his tears, knowing it was her final moments but not wanting to admit it. "No . . . No I'll do more than that; I'll become a Huntsmen! I'll work hard every day and I'll try to get along with people . . . I promise you . . . We may not be related by blood, but I promise you this as a brother to his sister, I'll be the best I can be. I'll save everyone I find!" Jasmine's eyes watered up, but Gale continued, "Jasmine . . . I'll do it . . . I'll be the best Huntsmen ever, just you wait and see! You'll be there to see it won't you? Won't you?" He asked desperately.

Jasmine's eyes filled with tears and she blinked up at him, "I'm sorry . . . I know why you would say no."

Gale blinked and looked at her confused, "What? Jasmine I said I would be a Huntsmen, are you-"

She interrupted him, "I didn't mean to ask so much of you . . . I hope wherever you go in life you'll be happy, and I'll watch over you I promise . . . Can you just tell me, goodbye?"

Gale shook his head, "What are you talking about? You'll be ok Jasmine . . . Don't you understand me? You'll be,"

She blinked once and interrupted him again, "Hello? Gale? I can't hear anything . . . I can't even hear that music anymore . . . Did the music end after you said no? It sounded like it ended when you said no."

Gale opened his eyes wide in fear as realized that Jasmine didn't hear anything of what he said about doing more than just helping, about being a Huntsmen, but she did hear him say no.

She held onto his cheek softly, "Gale . . . I'm sorry, please just be happy in this world . . . I'm sorry, I'll watch your progress in whatever you do . . . So please just be happy and tell me goodbye." She smiled softly at him, and despite her blindness, he could see the pain in her eyes.

Gale picked her up and hugged her tightly, and she slowly wrapped her arms around him. "Can you hear me Jasmine? I promise to be a Huntsmen! Please hear me! I'll be a Huntsmen! I'll go to one of the schools! I'll help everyone I can! Just please hear me and know I'll be a Huntsmen! The best Huntsmen in the history of the world! You'll see . . . Please hear me."

He held her tightly as he screamed, tearing apart his lungs with each word as he refused to take a breath before he was finished, and she whispered, "A silent goodbye then . . . I'll miss you, and I love you my best friend . . . My brother . . . Goodbye." Her arms went limp and Gale shook all over as he gripped her tightly and cried into her shoulder. He looked up at the ceiling after a few moments, and with closed eyes he shouted his heart out. He screamed for so long it was almost as if he would scream his lungs out. Pain cracked through his voice, and he shook his head while screaming for her to return and hear him. The very world seemed to shut itself in silence, as all he could day was scream for his best friend, for his sister, to return once again in his hour of darkness.

After a few hours Gale found himself standing over a burial mound in front of a grand oak tree; the tree towered over all other trees around it, and it watched the city from afar in all its brilliant glory. Gale looked down at a piece of paper titled "Beacon Academy, Official document, Background information." The first line asked for name, and on it read "Gale N. Wildheart" Gale sighed and looked down at the grave that held his medallion on a tree branch just above it. "I'm sorry Jasmine . . . I'll be the best Huntsmen ever . . . Just please watch me from wherever you are . . . Know what I said to you before you left." He gripped the paper and looked up at the moon. "Time to get to Beacon all the way in Vale. . . I will become a Huntsmen no matter the challenge." He walked towards the city, "Goodbye," he said while stopping once last time, but not looking back.

He continued on without another word, and soon boarded the first train he could to get to the nearest Kingdom of Vacuo, at least eight hours away. He sat back in one of the train's private carts and sighed as he saw how empty it was, "Let's see . . . I get to Vacuo from here to the first airship leaving for Vale, and then board the airship . . . That's a long way away, so I guess I better get some sleep." Gale said to himself as put his arms behind his head. He bobbed his tail in front of him to stare at the bandana tied around it, "Sis," he mumbled as he remembered as children, Jasmine had given him that bandanna, in the hopes he would see that blue was the color of bravery. "Bravery blue and red courage . . . Those with this have it . . . To make a difference for the better," he said before he closed his eyes, and drifted off to a trouble slumber.


	5. Chapter 5 The Thief

Chapter 5: The Thief

A shrouded figure laid its back a top the edge a tall building nearly kissing the clouds above it. It wore a black jacket, black ski mask, Blue eyed night vision goggles, black cameo pants, black combat boots and a double bladed sword on its back. It let its foot hang down off the building, and it swung it back and forth in the air. "Jericho . . . Let's get moving," said a girl's voice near the figure laying on the edge.

The figure stretched up and turned to her, "Honestly Iris . . . You can't hide such beauty behind the mask all the time." He turned his head and looked at how the one he referred to was shrouded in the same armor he was, though her goggles were black eyed and small horns stuck out of her head. "Now Viper I could care less for," he said nodding to a large muscular figure standing behind her, who was dressed in the same shrouded armor with green eyed night vision goggles, "But only because he doesn't have the emotional connection I look for." Jericho began to chuckle, "I can't even say that with a straight face," he said before bursting out in laughter, nearly falling off the edge.

Iris shook her head and Viper growled, "Come on, let's get going." She ordered while walking to the edge of the building Jericho sat on, then starring at the city before them. "Vacuo, the Schnee Dust company has a connection hear that's storing quite the amount of cash, we're taking it just like the job said . . . This place will be packed with all those kids tomorrow morning . . . Thousands of them all coming here to spend their money and catch another train to one of those monster hunter schools . . . So we come in, steal some easy money, and suddenly prices explode, we come next night when their gone, and take an even bigger cut . . . Brilliant plan." Jericho said after crossing his legs and leaning forward to look down. "How many stories high are we again, Iris?"

The girl pulled out her scroll and pushed a few buttons on the holographic screen, "According to my research . . . The building we're on . . . Is the central commerce building for all the transactions that electronically flow in and out of this Kingdom, especially those dealing with Schnee goods . . . It stands exactly four hundred and thirty three stories." She put her scroll away Jericho whistled in amazement as he looked down.

Viper strapped on a belt connected to a wire that grasped a thick device embedded into the ground behind him, "Let's gear up." He said in a deep and powerful voice. Iris strapped on her belt as well and pulled the cord to secure it in place.

Jericho sat and waited without his, "Where's Nicole and Robert?" He asked while tilting his head to the side. As if on cue, another two figures appeared from the building's rooftop entrance, and both were dressed in the same black shrouded armor. The girl was short and slender while the boy was much weaker looking than the one called Viper, but still bigger than Jericho. They were the two Jericho referred to, and Nicole's goggles were red eyed, while Robert's were purple eyed. Jericho nodded his head in approval, "Good, then maybe now we won't get each other mixed up thanks to this idea. Also," Jericho said as he leaned in to stare at Robert, "Did you get my stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah, here," Robert complained as he threw a thermostat at Jericho, who caught it and instantly popped it open.

He took a deep breath to take in the scent of a hot brown liquid inside and shook all over, "Oh in the name of everything cool . . . Coffee . . . Coffee yes, thank you Robert," Jericho said before he started to sip it.

"Eight sugars, cream, six Espressos, mixed with two Beast energy drinks I stole from a vending machine . . . It's. . . Horrible whatever that is," Robert said as he watched Jericho drink it without even flinching.

"Hey, I don't tell you how to live your life, and you lost the game last time so you owed me it, oh and Iris, again, this idea of mine with the colored googles, brilliant and you know it." He said childishly.

"It's a stupid idea," Iris said in an annoyed voice.

"That's where you're wrong! This is a brilliant idea, Nicole, Robert, hurry up and get your gear on we don't have all night!" Jericho ordered while standing up and pointing at them in an overly dramatic and very childishly playful manner.

After the team had put their belts on, Jericho nodded, "Then let's get this party started!" He jerked backwards and fell off the building without any safety gear on, drinking his heart exploding concoction at the same time. "Did he just," Robert began to ask in disbelief.

Iris shook her head and interrupted him, "You all remember the plan, we leave him for dead after the job or else he's going to get us killed. After that we collect a bonus from Dark Wolf in the White-Fang . . . Jericho's wanted by them anyways." She jumped off the building with the safety rope trailing along. Viper and Nicole followed, "It's about time we got rid of that punk, and all his fucking games." Robert mumbled before jumping after them.

Jericho flipped through the air and grabbed hold of his double bladed sword. He flipped a few more times and then stabbed it right into one of the metal lines holding up the windows. "Clean hit," he thought to himself. He held out his thermostat and caught a trail of coffee that seeped into it, "Gotcha," he said before drinking it all down in one gulp. "Perfect," he said with a calm and pleased face before throwing the thermostat off into the streets far below.

Jericho looked up as his companions ran along the windows silently with rifles in their hands. He removed his goggles and let them fall as well, "Those are annoying," he said as he stared inside at a dark hallway. He looked inside with dark gray eyes, and they flashed a bright neon silver color. He pushed in on the glass to enter the building, but instead of breaking, the glass simply fell on the ground of the office floor, but didn't make a sound nor break as he ran over it and down the hall with incredible speed. "Wow . . . Lucky me that didn't break," he thought to himself as he pulled his hood up to shadow his face. He crouched near the end of the hallway and looked back as his companions carefully made their way through the hole he opened.

Jericho rolled his eyes and took a peak from around the corner to see an elevator with a janitor in front of it. He grinned and his eyes flashed the same neon silver color again. The janitor stood up straight and sighed before he put on his headphones and blasted his music at max volume. The janitor began to sway around his mop to the music, and a plastic card fell out of his pocket. Jericho watched as the janitor picked up his tools and left to go and clean more of the hallway further away from the elevator. His companions kneeled right by him just as he got up and rolled forward, and the momentum carried him just far enough to get to the elevator door.

His companions followed at an annoyed pace. Jericho grabbed the card and moved his finger to call the elevator. Iris grabbed his hand, "Are you nuts? You're going to call the elevator? They'll obviously have guards watching that in the security room." She said in a hushed but angry tone.

Jericho pulled his arm away and laughed quietly, "Oh yeah?" He turned his back to her just before his eyes flashed again; he slid the card in the slot next to the elevator buttons, and then pushed the down button. Iris pointed her gun at him, "Alright that's it! You're about to give us away and I'm not going to go to," she was cut off as the door opened and a sign on the back wall read, "Due to high levels of student activity tomorrow we order all security officers to return to their homes and prepare for tomorrow, Thank you and have a nice day."

Jericho laughed quietly and walked in with a cocky stroll, "Ease up Iris," she pushed past him and the others filed into the elevator.

Jericho stared at the floor numbers as the doors closed and Iris nudged him, "You said you'd know which floor to go to!"

He held up his hands in a playful surrender, "Oh I'm sorry princess, are you late for your knight in shining armor or something? I got this." Iris shook her head and looked around uncomfortably in the tight space. Jericho stared at the buttons for a minute, and his eyes flashed again. He felt along the edges of the box, and clicked a hidden button at the bottom of the mechanism.

The elevator began to drop at a rapid speed. "Thank you, executive member of the Schnee Dust Company, for choosing, vault floor, as your destination." Jericho grinned, "See?" He said matter-of-factly.

After a few moments the elevator doors opened and the team walked out into a very wide and seemingly endless shadowed hallway. Robert took a few steps forward ahead of the others, and Jericho reached his hand out, "Robert, don't," he shouted. Robert looked back, and then to his side just moments too late; a shockwave of electricity shot off from one of the wall squares next to him, because he had stepped on a pressure plate of some kind. He lay on the ground stunned and unable to move.

The hallway lit up with a bright white light, and showed many different hallways that seemed to go on forever. From the hall itself, came a swarm robotic guards that fell out of different squares that ran along the walls and ceilings. Every guard was the same; a green cross with an overlapping green X went across their faceplate, while the entire body remained a bright crystal white color. They all held up two submachine guns and circled the team. "Intruders, do not move; lethal force authorized if you do not comply." Jericho scoffed with joy as he grinned, and Iris stepped back. Jericho slowly rolled up his sleeves to show dragon tattoos circling each other on his left arm, and a black sword tattooed on his right arm. The mechanical guard cocked its weapons, "Intruder, do not move, this is your final warning."

Viper glared and Nicole shook slightly. A few moments of tense silence passed by, but Jericho quickly shattered that. "Let's go!" Jericho shouted before drawing his blade and tossing it forward like a javelin in one fluid motion. It impaled the face of the robot that had ordered them to not move.

"Jericho you idiot," Iris shouted before raising her rifle and opening fire at the robotic guards around her. Viper and Nicole followed Iris's choice of actions, and they also followed after her as she chased Jericho down the hall he sliced his way through.

Jericho jumped up and forced the robotic guard that had his blade in its face into the ground. He grabbed his blade and yanked it out in a fluid motion while rolling forward and jumping up to slash through two more guards. "You have to take risks in this world Iris!" He shouted while running forward, ducking, and breaking his sword in half to slash two robots off their torso's as he slid past them on his knees. He forced himself up to flip over a guard that slashed at him with its guns, and shot two bullets, one each from the barrel of his sword's guard. Jericho didn't let up, as he continued running forward after such perfect fatal strikes against his opponents.

The guards opened fire at them, but the team maneuvered as best as they could until they reached one of the intersections in the hallway and took cover. Viper and Nicole ducked to the right, while Jericho and Iris dived to the left. Everyone except Jericho fired their guns off into the seemingly endless wave of guards that maneuvered towards them better than any cheap machine. "These guys seem to be able to think! They're dodging our shots," Nicole shouted from cover before taking a shot at them.

One of the bots began to order the rest, "New orders, just as with the previous intruder, we are to use non-lethal shock rounds, capture the intruders alive." It ordered in a metallic voice. Jericho looked around and closed his eyes as his comrades fought. A few more bots fell as bullets from the intruders struck them.

Iris fired into the wave of guards with furious anger, "I am not going to prison again!" She shouted at no one in particular.

Jericho opened his eyes, and it flashed neon as he stared at another intersection. "Let's go guys!" He shouted before running towards it and hanging a right. Iris growled and chased after him with Viper and Nicole following quickly. Nicole turned back to fire and failed to see where they went, and when she turned back she panicked and ran left. She screamed as she met three guards that shocked her into submission. Viper looked back and Jericho shouted at him to leave her behind.

Viper growled and turned to follow Jericho and Iris down to another intersection, they hung a left, then straight for two intersections, and finally another left, avoiding guards that swarmed the adjacent hallways. They stared at a large vault door, and Jericho ran up to the computer panel that asked for a password. "Cover me for just a minute!" He shouted before sliding under the panel and ripping it open to get into the circuits. Viper shook a bit and took cover behind one of the hall corners, while Iris glared at Jericho before taking position on the opposite end of Viper.

Not a moment later the robotic guards swarm from both directions, and Viper and Iris fired furiously into their horde that fired back. "Jericho! Hurry up and get that door open!" She shouted at him before shooting one guard in the head. Iris quickly hid behind her cover and reloaded before leaning back out to fire again and again. Viper shouted in fury as he fired into the horde, "You like that? You like that? You like that? Get some! Come and get some! Come on, you stupid fucking machines!" He stupidly stepped out of cover, and began to push forward into the horde that purposefully missed him as anyone could see. As he got closer he clobbered one, and screamed with pain as he held his hand that struck the hard metal. The guards fired at him, and Viper was instantly shot down with three electrically charged bullets. He shook violently before leaning up; only to be shot down multiple times until he finally gave up.

"What an idiot," Jericho mumbled while leaning next to Iris casually putting his arms behind his head.

She growled and swatted him away, "get that door open! Forget him!"

The large steel door opened as the computer went green and read, "Welcome," on the screen.

Jericho laughed and pointed at it, "Already did princess, no wonder you never make friends, better no wonder you're still single," he teased as he swung in and Iris followed close behind. Jericho took off his hood and ski mask, and showed medium length silvery gray colored hair to match his dark silver eyes. "Sorry Iris."

She looked up at him and backed away from the still opened door, "For what? Just close the damn door!"

He shrugged, "If you say so," and with that he shot her leg and kicked her out of the vault room, stabbed the computer, and caused the door to shut behind him. He looked out of its see through window as she punched the glass and screamed at him. He waved goodbye, "I'm sorry for trusting you all . . . I'm so glad this little plan of mine came together . . . Anyways, enjoy prison you backstabber! We could have been rich beyond our wildest dreams! Oh but you just had to believe what Dark Wolf said about me? How stupid." He waved as Iris was shocked into submission and he then slowly turned around with a smile as he saw his prize.

Jericho whistled, laughed, and clapped his hands together, "Now that's a beauty," he smiled as he saw one massive storage bank with the number "956,873,491,502" and it continued to rise slowly. "The central storage for all of Vacuo's Lien flow . . . Everything from small shops to big corporations, electronic transactions . . . Beautiful . . . I'm a rich man," He said with a laugh while rubbing his hands together. "I can retire early . . . This is a good day to be," he was interrupted as he reached out at the machine.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a strange voice from behind him.

Jericho spun around and held his two blades at the ready, "Who's there?"

A man with short gray hair, a tattered professor's coat, and an ominous blue right eye and silver left eye walked out from the shadows with both hands in his pockets. "Hello there . . . I'm Professor William Fallon."

Jericho nodded and kept his blade at the ready with one of the gun barrels aimed at the Professor, "I know that name . . . Professor of some monster killer academy right? What was it . . . Beacon right?"

William smiled softly at Jericho, "Indeed I am . . . I must say you have exceptional skill . . . And an amazing stroke of luck you seem to have going for you."

Jericho connected his swords to make the double blade once more, and then holstered it as he smiled back, "Right, well as long as you're not here to take my score I'll just," he stopped talking when he turned and saw William was standing in front of the money storage. "How . . . How did you," he stopped as William smiled curiously at him.

"I can't offer you riches beyond what you see here . . . However, I can give you what you seek the most . . . Study to be a Huntsmen, and you'll be able to make a life for yourself, you can reach an escape from your pain."

Jericho grunted, but quickly nodded slowly with a look of confusion, "Right . . . I'd rather just take my score and retire so if you could just move." Jericho took a step forward while ignoring William.

William gave a small smile. Jericho blinked twice and stared at him in confusion. "Jericho Silber . . . Orphaned since you were a baby; you were adopted by a syndicate of con-artists, liars, thieves, and murderers. The leader trained you and raised you like a son . . . On your fourteenth birthday you betrayed him and the entire group by selling them out to the national authorities through the alias 'Spyglass' and were then banished when they discovered your actions . . . After words you infiltrated the White-Fang for some time before selling out a lot of them as well. Now normally I'd never want someone to come near my students, but after further study, you sold out only a group that was planning to bomb remote villages filled with civilians. . . You took risks to save innocents, a quality needed among Huntsmen and Huntresses alike. . . Come to Beacon Academy, and I guarantee you will no longer need to run from them . . . So long as you work hard and don't become an annoyance."

Jericho nodded as he heard William accurately describe parts of his past. "Right . . . Ok . . . Well when you put it that way how can I possibly resist? You got more blackmail to use against me then I do against anyone I've ever known."

William smiled and threw a small box at him. "This is your uniform, as well as one hundred Lien . . . I'd recommend buying clothes for your new life, oh and be sure to check out the Central Plaza for as long as possible. . . Air ships will be coming from Mistral to pick up students here heading for Beacon, you may join them and maybe meet some, interesting, individuals. Have a good night Mr. Silber." William walked into the shadows and seemed to vanish from the room.

Jericho looked down at the box and up at the electronic Lien storage. "Well . . . This sucks." He looked outside of the window and carefully navigated his way out back to where he stared, not once tripping any alarms or alerting guards. He descended the building and vanished into a nearby alleyway. "Guess I start a new life tomorrow at Beacon . . . Wow this uniform looks so cool!" He said after opening the box. Jericho threw the rather dashing looking uniform on quickly, and then made his way to a fountain in the Central Plaza of the Kingdom. "Then I just wait here for now," he yawned and laid down on a wooden bench, "I still could have used that money . . . But something tells me that wouldn't be lucky," he said before yawning again. He soon fell asleep without a care in the world.


	6. Chapter 6 The Strange Bunch

Chapter 6: The Strange Bunch

An alarm clocked blared as the sun crept over a small bedroom. The sheets rustled and fell on the floor with a thump. "Ouch! What the heck is that?" The sheets rustled and Sora poked her head out from the spiral of deep purple sheets. She looked at her alarm and blinked twice before reading it. The clock blinked at "7:30am" and she yawned before staring at it a little longer, dazed and wondering why this was happening.

Her door flung open and a boy with short spikey black hair; fair skin and bright red eyes put one of his hands to his side and stared at Sora with distress. "Hey sis, wake up already! We only have thirty minutes to make it to the station and I don't want to leave without you unless I have to!"

Sora blinked a few times and squinted. "Brother is that you? What's going on? Also . . . What are you wearing?" Fenris looked down at his school uniform, a very elite looking white and gray uniform blazer and pants. "It's the uniform for Atlas Academy; even if we're going to separate schools, I'm going to my school just an hour after you leave from the station here, you'll have a six or so hour ride, so hurry up and grab your bags so you can come catch the airship." He explained while leaning forward to stare at her.

Sora blinked again, "Bags?" A wave of silence washed over them and Fenris stared at Sora dumbfounded.

"You did pack last night after Dad said it was ok to go right? That recruiter convinced him and you went to bed earlier than usual all excited, so didn't you," his voice trailed off and after a moment of silence, it finally happened.

Sora opened her eyes wide and screamed, "What?! Dad said yes? When? How? Why? I haven't packed!" She began to scramble around to pack anything and everything she could without much care as to what it actually was.

After about twenty minutes the front door of the sibling's two story house swung open with Fenris flying through the air and out onto the street. "Come on! If we hurry we can make it!" On his back were at least ten large bags of luggage that didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.

Sora stumbled out carrying three large bags on her back, "Brother . . . You have all the strength from your semblance! All I got was reflexes . . . But reflexes don't work if I'm weighed down!" She complained while stumbling out onto the one-way street.

Fenris grabbed her by her bags and hoisted her up, "Then I'll carry you there! Let's go!" Sora tried to protest from being picked up, but Fenris ran forward, pulled out a bright green and red notepad like object and smiled confidently, "Just get ready, because this is going to be fun!" He jumped up and slipped the notepad under his feet mid-air. It suddenly extended into a board that hovered slightly off the ground.

"What are you doing?" Sora tried to shout in protest.

The board lit up green and red light pulsing through it, and began to hum with Fenris crouching on it. He grinned and leaned forward, and as he did this, the board sped up, like a bullet shot down the street. "Come on little sister! It's fun! It's just like skateboarding, but this is way more dangerous and fun!" Sora flailed her arms and legs around, screaming protests as they sped past cars and people on the sidewalks. "Enjoy it Sora! I made this weapon to be fun and useful at the same time, so enjoy it because you only get this one time to use it!" Fenris shouted as he picked up speed and ran multiple red lights.

On the other side of the city, the airship station boomed with life as hundreds of students all boarded and/or said their goodbyes as they prepared to go to their respective academies. Cyrus and Elizabeth boarded one of the massive airships, Cyrus first and Elizabeth happily following along. "This is so exciting! We're actually taking an airship to ride! I've never been in one for just fun, this is so cool!" She exclaimed.

Cyrus nodded, "All these people, Faunus and Human, they're so nice here . . . It's hard to believe anyone would be a bigot here like they always told us."

Cyrus smiled as he looked around at the airship's wide open spaces areas to sit and mingle all over. He felt a gleam of hope as he saw groups of Faunus and Humans mixed together, happily talking, showing off weapons, telling stories of their lives at school before going to Beacon Academy, and just getting along. Cyrus looked around for a place to sit, and he saw a blonde haired human talking with three friends, all three of them on the booth facing him instead of with him. "Excuse me; may my friend and I sit here with you?" Cyrus asked with a smile.

The boy looked up at them with dark green eyes and laughed, "Not on your life, find someone else to annoy, dog." The boy leaned on the wall of the airship and put his feet over the whole seat. Elizabeth gritted her teeth, but Cyrus gently grabbed her wrist and nodded at the boy, "Your choice; goodbye."

He walked away and the boy stared at them, "What a freak." Cyrus ignored him and continued exploring parts of the airship.

A few kids looked around at what was said, but turned away and returned to their conversations once no violence occurred. Elizabeth looked up at Cyrus, "Why don't we do anything about that?" She complained.

Cyrus turned to her and smiled, "We don't want any unnecessary violence, we want to help people, if humans want to be ignorant about us then let them do so, because we're just going to smile and show it doesn't bother us, alright?"

Elizabeth's cheeks flustered a bit and she shook her head, "Ok, ok . . . I don't like it . . . I'd rather we break their skulls, but if you say so . . . So where should we sit then?" She asked.

Cyrus looked around and saw a half circle booth with only two people in it, one Faunus boy near the edge with his bright red monkey tail laid on the back of the booth, and another human girl. The boy was fast asleep and snoring softly with his face staring up at the roof, while the girl read a brown leather book and sat near the center of the half circle.

Cyrus walked over to them and smiled, "Good morning, may my friend and I sit here with you?" He asked in a friendly tone.

The girl looked up at them, "Huh? Oh sure, go ahead." Cyrus thanked her and sat down next to the girl while Elizabeth sat on the opposite side of her next to the sleeping boy.

"I'm Cyrus by the way, Cyrus Wolf, and this here is my friend Elizabeth Longshot."

The girl looked up at him and nodded, "I'm Star, I don't know who he is; he was asleep when I got here."

Cyrus nodded, "I see . . . Well it's nice to meet you, are you heading to Beacon as well?"

She closed her book, "I'm going to Beacon Academy yeah, why are you talking with me anyways? I'm kind of, you know. . . Reading . . . I sat next to someone asleep after all." She asked bluntly.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to make a remark, but Cyrus interrupted her before she could start, "My apologies Star, I was being too nosey, my friend and I are also going to Beacon and we aren't really from around the city, so socializing seemed like it would help us both. Anyways, we'll leave you alone now, again I am sorry." He said with a friendly smile.

Star nodded, "Right . . . Well I'm sorry to, I guess I'm just not use to dealing with people."

Cyrus nodded, "Its ok, so maybe we can try to get to know each other a little bit? It's always nice to make new friends, so we might as well try making some, me and Elizabeth I mean."

Elizabeth shook her head, "I don't need help making any more friends! I'm a grown-up, so I can make friends when I think I should with no trouble." She claimed while confidently smiling and leaning back in her seat, crossing her legs and folding her arms.

Cyrus nodded slowly, "Right . . . Well then how about trying right now with Star here?"

Elizabeth opened her eyes in surprise, "Um . . . What?"

Cyrus smiled, "Well if you're that good at making friends, why not show me how to? I don't really have a clue how to, so try making friends with Star to help me learn how it's done."

Elizabeth laughed nervously and looked over at Star, who blinked a few times and then returned to her book. "You didn't even give me a chance!" Elizabeth yelled.

Star looked up after giving a sigh, "You're not exactly saying anything." She replied in a matter-of-factly kind of way before returning to her book once more. Elizabeth put her head on the neck rest of the cart before giving a sigh.

The boy next to her gave a loud snore, "Banana," he mumbled before breathing in slowly, plopping his head back against the booth again, and not once waking up. His fiery red hair stayed spiked up even where he had slept on it.

Cyrus laughed, "Well then . . . How much longer until the airship starts moving? Do you have any idea, Star?"

She looked out the window at the last of some families saying their goodbyes and boarding the train. "I'd say any minute now."

Cyrus nodded, "Well then . . . At least we're near the back with a great view. . . Maybe we can watch the city behind us right?"

Star looked out the window on the opposite side of the airship and nodded, "I'm facing the city now so I guess I get the best view of it with you."

Elizabeth clamored up the stare out the window behind them with a bored look, "I guess I can see Vacuo when we first make it there."

Cyrus smiled, and looked back in confusion as he heard obnoxious laughter, and frowned as he saw the blonde haired boy from earlier mocking a Faunus girl for both her cat ears, tail, and glasses. "What's this, a little animal girl and a four eyed freak at the same time? I guess that's what makes it fit so well . . . Both make her look stupid." He teased while grabbing onto the girl's ears and pulling.

"Ouch! Please let me go . . . That really hurts." She tried to step back as the bullies laughed and called her names. The bully took her glasses and held them high above her head while mocking her further.

Cyrus shook his head, and the red haired boy suddenly awoke, stood up, and walked out of the circle booth. "Cyrus?" Elizabeth asked while looking at him in confusion. He didn't answer her, and watched the red haired boy approach the blonde haired boy from behind.

"Hey! Leave her alone." The red haired Faunus boy shouted at him.

The bully turned around and frowned at him, "What'd you say to me, freak?" He shoved the girl to the floor beside him, dropped her glasses, and popped his knuckles.

The red haired boy held his ground and took a step forward, his tail tensed up and bobbed over his right shoulder showing the blue bandana tied around it still. "You heard me, and you listened, does having ears like yours make you more obedient?"

The bully laughed, "You got guts for a stupid animal, you think you can take me?" He asked while looking down at the red headed Gale.

"Why don't you just try to make a move," Gale further held his ground while staring straight into the bully's eyes.

The blonde haired boy clicked his tongue, "I'd be happy to tame an animal, but you're not worth my time to train, maybe at Beacon." He turned around and his friends followed while laughing. Gale gritted his teeth and sighed, and the girl left quietly before he could ask her anything.

Gale yawned and walked back to his booth to see it still full. "Um . . . Who the fuck are you people and why the fuck are you in my cart?"

Star shrugged, "You were asleep when I got here so I just thought it would be nice to read a book quietly."

Cyrus smiled, "She said this seat wasn't taken so I just thought it would be nice to be with more of our kind," He said while nodding over to Elizabeth who looked outside with wonder at the station instead of back at Gale.

"This glass if warm!" Elizabeth managed to say as she squished her face against the glass.

Gale nodded, "Well . . . How about this, you and I have a quick sparing match right here, and if you win you can stay alright?"

Elizabeth looked back at him in disbelief and Cyrus nodded, "I suppose that sounds fun, you don't like people I'm guessing?"

Gale shook his head, "I don't mind people who can handle themselves, I just don't want to be a baby sitter to the people I might end up hanging around with a lot. Plus, you seem like you'd be some good fun to spar with."

Cyrus stood up, "You look fun too," he said as he casually followed Gale to the center of the airship. Some students turned their attention to the two Faunus about to fight. A small crowd formed rather quickly, and Cyrus took up his position near the back, while Gale took his near the actual center of the airship.

Gale grinned, "So, weapons or hand to hand?"

Cyrus thought for a second, "How about hand to hand? We're both good with weapons no doubt; hand to hand skill takes a lot of courage and practice."

Gale opened his stance, "Sounds good to me," he said while putting his hands in his pockets and wrapping his tail around his body without letting it actually touch his skin.

"Good to know," Cyrus said with a smile as he readied himself. They waited a moment, and when the airship announced it would be moving; they lunged forward at each other in the blink of an eye.

Gale held his leg up right above Cyrus's neck, while Cyrus blocked it and kept it up as he slide towards Gale with a jab at the ready. Gale swatted it away with his tail, allowing himself to spin backwards in reverse and jump up to throw his other foot out. As it swung towards Cyrus, it narrowly missed his head. Cyrus ducked and threw up his fist for an uppercut, but Gale leaned back and avoided it with a backflip, while bringing up both of his legs to try and kick Cyrus in the chin. Cyrus narrowly dodged and jumped into a back flip before taking his stance once again. Gale grinned as he kept his hands in his pockets, "You're good . . . You're a lot more fun than I thought you'd be."

Cyrus smiled, "You as well, shall we continue?"

Gale took his hands out of his pockets, "Finally someone I can go all out with," and charged forward into Cyrus. They threw punch after punch, but Gale threw a few fast kicks and swats from his tail that slammed into Cyrus's arms as he blocked them time and time again without much trouble.

Gale leaned back as Cyrus threw a quick punch towards him, and Gale then swept his feet under Cyrus to knock him off the ground. Cyrus, however, jumped up and practically hugged his legs before shooting them out and hitting Gale straight in the face. Gale rolled back and got back up on his feet, "Now that was a good hit, but I'm not done yet!" He shouted before lunging forward and throwing a feint punch to Cyrus's right. Cyrus attempted to block, but Gale grinned and dropped his fist in order to spin around, land a kick into Cyrus's side, and knock him to the side a few steps.

They took their positions, Gale grinned while Cyrus smiled happily. "This is indeed a good match." Cyrus said happily.

"Let's get wild!" Gale shouted.

Gale readied himself and then dropped his stance as he looked behind Cyrus in confusion. "What the hell?" He said with bewilderment as he tried to look behind Cyrus. Cyrus looked back and raised his brow as he saw the airship slowing ascending from the ground, but also saw two figures speeding past security and heading towards them on floating board.

"Are they students?" Cyrus asked with confusion.

Gale walked up next to him and squinted "Seems like it . . . They have a lot of bags, and the one carrying the other is dressed in an Atlas Academy uniform, but wait. . . This one is set for Vacuo then Vale, why would an Atlas student be coming here?" Gale scratched the back of his head in confusion, and then walked towards the emergency door at the rear of the ship. "Come help me with this will ya?"

Cyrus nodded, "You got it," he replied as he went over to the door just as the figures flew closer and closer at incredible speeds.

They yanked open the steel door, and let it slide open slowly just in time. The two figures on the board flew right into the opening and spun out of control. The one with an Atlas uniform rolled forward and jumped up onto his feet, "That was awesome! Don't you think so Sora?" He exclaimed with joy.

He held up his sister who looked around dizzily, "I uh . . . I don't . . . What did we do? I feel . . . Where's my liver?"

Fenris laughed and patted her back roughly, "That's just the adrenaline! You'll get used to it soon enough! Oh!" He looked over at Cyrus who shut the door behind them, "Thanks you two, it really means a lot." He held out his hand and grinned happily.

Cyrus bowed his head slightly and shook his hand, "My pleasure, that's . . . Quite the amount of luggage you've got there." He nodded towards the large bags on his back.

Gale blinked twice, "Yeah no kidding . . . Your uniform . . . You're going to Atlas?"

Fenris nodded, "Yep, and my little sister here is going to Beacon."

Gale raised his brow in confusion, "Sister?"

Fenris nodded without looking back, "Yeah . . . So anyways, I'm Fenris Starling, nice to meet you, and this poor girl here," he said while lowering her to the ground, "is indeed my little sister, Sora Starling."

She stayed lying on her stomach, "Nice to . . . Meet you." She said tiredly.

Cyrus raised his brow but kept his smile, "I'm Cyrus, Cyrus Wolf." He said kindly.

Gale folded his arms, "I'm Gale . . . Nice to meet you." Fenris stared at Cyrus' wolf ears perked up in curiosity, and Gale's tail bobbing around indifferently.

"Whoa . . . Are you both Faunus?"

Cyrus nodded and Gale frowned slightly, "Yeah," he said with annoyance.

Fenris lit up like a lamp and stepped closer to the both of them, "That's so cool!" He said with a huge smile.

Gale blinked in confusion, "I'm going back to sleep in the cart, I've had enough for one afternoon," he said while turning around and leaving without another word.

Cyrus laughed, "That's a different reaction than normal. Thank you . . . So then, most carts are taken but we have plenty of room in ours if you're interested."

Fenris shrugged, "Well I have to get back actually, I need to get back to the station before my own airship leaves, but Sora here," he said while picking up his little sister by the back of her collar, "Would love to meet new friends. Don't be bothered by the fact she may be a bit childish, it's normally."

Fenris didn't even wait for Sora to wake up before heading for the exit, "Take care of her for me!" He grabbed the board and opened the back door again as the winds began pulling him out, and then shut it once more after jumping out with his massive amount of luggage.

Cyrus watched him go with a not-too-bad kind of look before shrugging and helping Sora up. She snapped awake, "Big brother?" She blurted out while looking around.

Cyrus shook his head, "Nope, but we have one of those big booths right now if you want to hang out with us."

Sora sighed, "I guess I will; thanks." Cyrus led the way and gestured towards the half-circle booth that had grown quite drastically in occupants.

Elizabeth smiled up at Sora, Gale snored quietly, Star read her book, and one of the three remaining seats next to her was occupied by the girl who was being bullied earlier. Sora walked in and sat next to Elizabeth, as did Cyrus who sat next to Sora.

He tried to get comfortable, but two new faces suddenly burst into the remaining seats, dressed as casually as ever. The newcomers ran and took the last two seats. "Sorry about that!" The boy said before scooting in comfortably. His yellow eyes matched the same color of his hair, while the girl's ocean blue hair was the same color as her own eyes.

Cyrus raised his eyebrow and the boy grinned before pointing at Gale's sleeping face, "Hey there, just wanted to stop by and say to you and that guy that those were awesome moves you had, and that what he did, the whole talking down to that bully guy before going off and fighting with someone else, it was awesome."

Gale jolted awake, "Huh? What's going on?" He looked around and rubbed his eyes. "Who the fuck are you new people?" He asked the newcomers that took the last seats.

The girl that was bullied mumbled, "Oh . . . I um . . . I'm Jade, Jade Kin . . . I just wanted to thank you for helping me back there . . . It was nice." She said while adjusting her glasses and looking up at Gale and then down at her seat, her own cat ears flattening down a bit as her tail laid protectively over her lap.

Gale yawned, "Well I don't like others being bullied, so don't thank me for just speaking my mind." Jade shuffled in her seat nervously and let her long chestnut brown hair fall in front of her shoulders while her deep brown eyes shook slightly.

The new comers smiled, "Well everyone I'm John Deacon, I'm going to Vacuo to attend, not going the long way."

The girl that came in with him leaned forward, "I'm Heather Ora; it's nice to meet you all; I'm going to the Academy in Vacuo as well, how about you all?"

They all said Beacon Academy one by one and finally they all laughed, "Well that's cool maybe we'll see each other at the tournaments in the future; so what are your names?" Again they went in order.

When it came to Gale sighed, "Gale," he said while putting his hands behind his head.

"Gale . . . What?"

"Just Gale," he said while getting comfortable.

"Cool I guess . . . So, my dad teaches at a combat school in Mistral, specifically on how to craft weapons, so the moment he saw my interest in being a Huntsmen he encouraged me to go to one of the academies, so I chose Vacuo, and then he let me make these," John stood up and pulled two leather bound poles from his belt. He jerked them forward and two green blades stretched out and curved back like jagged gusts of wind from each end on both blades. "These are my babies, so what do you all have?" He asked to continue the conversation.

Heather took off a large rectangular piece from her back and jerked it forward to show it extend into two large hand shields with serrated edges. "No fair, I want to show mine first. It's meant purely for defense," she packed it away and smiled at everyone's admiration of it.

Sora showed off her sword that turned into a gun, Cyrus presented his shotgun tonfas, Elizabeth happily glorified her spear and then let it morph into its chainsaw form, then came Gale who showed his hand scythes and then showed how they became a staff and then a repeater rifle, Star casually showed her sword while still reading her book. "Um . . . I have this," Jade said nervously while pulling out a long-ranged rail gun sniper rifle.

John looked at her confused, "What does that do?" He asked curiously.

Jade ran her hand along the white metal body, "it's a rail gun."

The people around her praised such a rare and powerful weapon. "That is something else . . . Really cool, you make it yourself Jade?" Gale asked with a bit of awe.

Jade nodded and Gale smiled, "That's awesome!" She lowered her head and blushed.

After a few more questions and fun times, John clapped his hands together, "Well . . . Me and Heather need to go study up on the academy and all that, make sure to impress the professors . . . I want to impress all of them there on the very first day. It was nice meeting you all!" John exclaimed before starting to leave them. Heather said her farewells as well before heading out. The group was left a little bit more open with one another, thanks to some helpful strangers.


	7. Chapter 7 Vacuo and the Great Gambit

Chapter 7: Vacuo and the Great Gambit

A few clouds hung around in the air, but the sun still shined brightly in the afternoon sky. Students all around filled the streets as many had come to attend Vacuo's academy, or were at this stop waiting to head to Beacon.

Gale yawned as he pulled at his uniform, "So this is what one of these feels like . . . Man this is uncomfortable." He loosened the tie and looked down at the black pants and red linings on the blazer. "Oh well," he looked around at where he was. He was sitting down on a stone bench just far enough away from one of the many directories in Vacuo. A large group of students all in Beacon uniforms crowded around it to find places to pass time before the airships were ready to take them to Beacon. Gale yawned again and sighed, "Have to be nice . . . Have to be nice." He thought to himself over and over again.

"Hey are you ok?" a voice asked him from his left. He looked up to where it came from and blinked as he saw Jade standing by him with her arms crossed behind her back. She was dressed in the Beacon Academy uniform, blazer, skirt, and all. The Beacon crest was shining and new on her uniform, giving even her shy demeanor a very uniformed and professional appeal.

Gale nodded and looked back at the mass group of students surrounding the directory. After a moment he found himself continuously looking back and forth between them and Jade, who simply stood nervously next to him. Gale sighed, "Hey?" He asked rather harshly.

Jade jumped a bit, "Um . . . Y-Yes?" She asked nervously, her ears flatten on her head once more, giving away her nervousness.

Gale stared straight at the group and slouched back, "You can take a seat here if you want, I don't bite." He said trying to be funny while smiling at her as his tail moved from behind him to the opposite side of where she could sit. Jade hesitated and finally sat at the edge of the bench, as far away from him as possible. "You . . . Ok, well if you want to sit all the way over there that's fine by me, but you're showing you're nervous quite easily." Gale said tiredly.

"T-That's not it!" Jade looked up at him and mild shock at how she had just randomly said something like that before looking back down at her legs. "I'm just not good at talking to people . . . I'm very shy."

Gale nodded slowly, "So what then? You never have friends to normally talk to?"

Jade shook her head slowly like a frightened animal, "No! I mean I would always hang out in the library at our old combat school, in Mistral, alone." Gale looked at her in slight surprise at hearing the place she attended combat school. "I would always be sitting alone, studying or reading in the library, and no one would bother me, except this one really nice girl."

Gale continued to listen to her, "One friend?"

Jade nodded, "Yeah . . . Eventually I started talking to her; she was really nice . . . She said her name was Jasmine."

Gale looked at her in slight surprise, "This girl . . . knew Jasmine," he thought quietly to himself.

Jade looked up slowly at the group of kids in front of them, "B-But I told her that I'd try to make at least one friend on the ride to Beacon before I made it into one of the school ground, and then I'd met up with her . . . So I still have one more ride to go and I was just wondering if . . . If I could . . . If I could . . . Could."

She continued to tense up and finally Gale leaned back on the bench and put his arms behind his head. "You're welcome to stay with us; after all, because of us you have more than five friends now so I guess you met your goal."

Jade looked up at him in surprise, "You mean-"

Gale nodded, "I don't know about the others entirely, they seem nice enough, but you seem like a good kid so consider me your friend."

Jade smiled happily at him, "Thank you . . . To be honest, I actually heard she had died not too long ago," she said sadly, while bit his bottom lip quietly. "I . . . I think she would have liked you, she always liked helping at school, and especially liked talking to people like you," Jade said happily while looking at him with rising joy.

Gale held in his rising tears as he felt the words from Jade slice into his very soul, "Is that right? I think that would have been nice," He said as casually as he could.

Jade nodded, and then looked over his shoulder as she heard more people approaching.

Cyrus and Elizabeth walked towards them; Cyrus's uniform looked exactly like Gale's though it was far straighter and the tie was tightened, while Elizabeth's was just like Jade's. "Hey you two, how's it going?" Elizabeth asked happily.

Gale looked back and shrugged, "Not much, Jade just wants to know if we can all be friends, sound cool with you? She really could use some."

Jade tensed up nervously and tried to protest at how blunt he was about her issue, but Elizabeth quickly hugged her with a laugh, "Absolutely! I love making new friends!"

Cyrus nodded, "I don't see why not."

Gale yawned, "See? It was that easy to make friends with this strange bunch."

Jade stuttered nervously, "Um . . . I-I'm not m-much of a hugger . . . Can you please let go?"

Elizabeth ignored her for a minute until Cyrus picked her up by her neck collar, "Hey! Let me go!" She protested as her fox ears stood up in surprise at having been picked up. Cyrus laughed and held her up for another minute, letting her kick and squirm before finally letting go.

Sora found her way to them, "Sorry! John and Heather began trying to pull me into a swarm of new friends they made," She said with nervous laugh. "So how are you all doing?"

Gale yawned, "Tired . . . When does the airship leave for Beacon academy?"

Sora put her finger up to her chin and thought for a second. "Hmm . . . I don't really know too be honest."

Sora snapped her fingers, "Maybe train schedules are in the scrolls we got with the uniform!"

Jade looked up slowly, "Um . . . It leaves in about an hour, and the station is only ten minutes away from here, so by the time it leaves we'll be there sometime in the evening tonight, just in time for some sleep before the orientation ceremony tomorrow morning."

Cyrus looked at her curiously, "You sound like you know every detail of it."

Jade's cheeks flustered and she shuffled in her seat, "Well . . . I just did the math based off what I read in the scrolls we got. . . So I think it's accurate."

Gale yawned once more, "Great so I can sleep for half an hour . . . Just wake me up when we leave." He closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

The rest of the group laughed and continued to talk for a few minutes more until Star approached them all quietly. "Did you all go see what's happening at the main plaza?" The looked at her with confusion and she pointed back at where she came from, "You do know there's some kind of fight going on right? A lot of the students are there, apparently some people keep trying to fight this one guy, but they keep losing."

"A fight? I want to watch!" Sora bounced up.

"This does sound interesting," Cyrus said with a smile.

"Come on, it's actually really cool," Star said as she headed back from where she came. The group began to walk towards where she ran off to, but Jade stayed to shake Gale awake before following along.

Gale yawned and stood up, "Now what?" He asked no one in particular before walking after them.

After a few moments, the large group found themselves wading through a crowd that had circled around a few different first year students. One gray haired and gray eyed boy in a Beacon Academy uniform stood in a relaxed position with his hands in his pockets, black and silver wireless headphones resting on his head, and a gray beanie with a yellow pin of a plastic face sticking its tongue out stuck on the side of it. He himself was grinning at four random male students who were in casual clothing, brandishing their weapons at him. "How dare you steal from me, you damn thief," shouted one of them.

The gray haired boy shrugged, "What do you mean 'damn thief?' I won that game fair and square, I won these headphones, the beanie, and the money. Hell you should be thanking me for giving you the opportunity to play a real serious world game; I mean you guys coming to Vacuo always sound so laid back! Can't you take it easy?" The boy asked while laughing. The four students glared at him, and jumped forward to attack him with their weapons.

The gray haired boy squinted at them for a moment, and his eyes flashed a bright silver color. He moved ever so slightly to the left after closing his eyes again and then he swung his leg around to kick one of the students attacking him. He laughed, "You're seriously that easy to beat? I don't even have to pull my hands out of my pocket . . . Hey there, how about a wager?" He said while spinning around and looking at a random female student in casual clothing. She looked around nervously and pointed at herself in confusion. The gray haired boy nodded, and jumped in the air as one of his attackers tried to hit him from behind with a battle-axe. The gray haired boy crouched on the blade with his eyes closed, a smile on his face, and not one bit of worry in his body language. "Yes you, the cute one of course." The girl blushed and her friends giggled.

The attacker swung his axe around wildly to throw the gray haired boy off of it, but the boy only jumped up and threw his foot into the attackers face, knocking him out cold, and dropping him on the floor. "Let's have a bet; if I beat all these morons with just my feet, hands in my pocket, you let me treat you to dinner some day?"

She blushed heavily and looked down. One of the last two attackers behind him growled, "Don't ignore me you, you asshole!" He ran forward and slashed his sword horizontally.

The gray haired boy ducked and flipped backwards halfway to kick both feet into his attackers face, and then he used the momentum of his kick to flip back the halfway he initially accomplished so as to put him back on his feet facing the girl. "What do you say?"

She blushed for moment and finally looked up at him, "I . . . Uh . . . I," her friends nodded, "She'd love to!" They answered for her.

She blushed heavily, "N-No! Thank you though . . . I actually already like someone else, I-I'm sorry." She stuttered.

The gray haired boy pulled on his beanie, "Not a problem at all, I admire your loyalty to that special person. It's a pleasure to meet you by the way, names Jericho, it would," he swung around and smacked his foot into the last of his attackers, which sent the attacker sliding away on the ground. The gray haired boy looked back and bowed his head slightly while putting his right hand out, "Have been a pleasure to treat you, and now I must depart." He spun around and walked over to the massive holographic board that shined a welcome sign, and the names of different shops in the areas

The large group of friends seemed impressed by how the fight had gone, "Well that was a cool fight, but I wonder who's going to get that gray haired guy, he seems like a terrible team player, too laid back." Gale said out loud to his companions.

"Coming from the guy who slept most of the way here, that's just not even funny," Star jabbed at him.

An electronic voice began to ring throughout everyone's scrolls, "Attention students headed for Beacon Academy in Vale, please be aware that Airships depart soon, so please board whenever you are able." The voice repeated this message over and over a few times to ensure everyone understood.

After about ten minutes the large decided to go and find some spots on the airships headed for Beacon Academy. After finding some seats and passing some time, the airship began to take off with incredible speed. "Attention students heading for Beacon academy, due to clear weather and no interruptions, we will be arriving in Beacon at exactly eight in the evening, please enjoy your ride." A voice announced over the PA system from the cockpit. A few hours passed and Gale looked up at the airship's onboard digital clock; it read "6:32pm" and he sighed as he realized it would still be another hour and a half.

Gale looked around and saw that Jade and Cyrus were missing, while the rest of the group chatted on about other things. He finally stood up, exited the booth they had, and looked side to side. He perked up in surprise at seeing a large group of students massed together near the front of the airship; all crowding around one open booth.

Gale walked over and looked over their shoulders to see Cyrus and Jade sitting next to each other in the booth, and playing cards with the gray haired boy from earlier that sat across from them. "What was his name . . . Jericho he said right?" Gale asked himself quietly. He stared in mild surprise as he saw Jericho move to draw one card, but then he quickly pulled the second one from under the top card with such speed it was almost like it never happened. "What the hell?" Gale asked himself quietly.

Jericho leaned back, "So then, what do you two have, as you can see," he flipped the top card, "It's the angel of death card . . . The turn is over and now we show our hands." Jade put down hers and so did Cyrus so everyone could see their hands. "Let's see . . . Ah a good hand, you little lady, you've got four Atlas knights and a Huntress of virtue card, a total of twelve points . . . Now then, you sir have got yourself one Ursa card, that's minus three points . . . However you also have two white dragons and two Huntsmen of strength, so that makes fourteen points with the minus already added, so combined you both have twenty six points." Jade and Cyrus smiled confidently, but Jericho smiled as well.

He shrugged, "I'm sorry do this to you both but," he showed his hand, which held four dragons, one red, blue, green, and one white, and he also had a knight with a gold cross on it, "I've got the four elemental dragon kings, with a Huntsmen Holy Hero to boot . . . So my total is fifty five points . . . Guess I win again." He took two clear plastic cards they both had stacked in front of them. "So then . . . You want another game? I know I've already taken so much Lien from each of you, and more from all these nice folks, I don't want to take all your money, but I will if you chose to play."

Cyrus and Jade hesitated, but Gale stepped forward through the crowd, "I'll play . . . Provided we do this with a hundred Lien." Gale offered while staring at Jericho calmly.

Jericho smiled and opened his arms, "Sounds wonderful! Let's have a game then!" He exclaimed happily.

Cyrus and Jade tried to make him stop but Gale shook his head, "Trust me; just stand to the side alright?" He nodded out into the crowd and both of them obeyed him without much of a fight after that. Gale sat down and rubbed his tired eyes before running a hand through his fiery red hair. Jericho shuffled the cards while looking him over, "So what's your name?" Gale nodded and gestured to him, "Isn't it polite to introduce yourself before asking another's name?"

Jericho shrugged with a smile of interest, "I grew up outside the Kingdoms, social stuff like that goes over my head. I'm Jericho Silber, and you?"

Gale nodded slowly, "I'm Gale." He said casually.

Jericho smiled, "So then Gale, you must really love red huh?"

Gale raised an eyebrow, "My favorite color is blue actually," he said as his red monkey tail bobbed in the air with the blue bandanna tied around it.

Jericho nodded, "I see . . . I mean its' obvious blue is your favorite color, you practically scream blue."

Gale yawned, "I know, but being born with red hair I figured I'd embrace it."

Jericho nodded slower than before, "That's why I personally love every color except gray, it's so boring, yet it's so, well . . . Me." He finished shuffling and spread all the cards out facedown.

Jericho looked up at him, "So then, do you know how to play this game?"

Gale thought for a minute, "The game is called War Party right?"

Jericho smiled with a short nod, "Yes it is."

Gale stared at the cards, "Then yes I remember . . . Someone other than the dealer draws one card from the pile, then they shuffle around the cards, then the next person going clockwise draws a card, and this continues until each player has five cards. The cards are then put into deck form, and we are allowed to discard up to four cards, then draw however many we discard, and if we want to discard again we are able to do so with one less than last time, and we may continue this until we are longer able to do so . . . We show our hands and tally up the points in each war party. Points are earned based on the card's base attack, its type, element, and how many pairs or similar color cards we have, however corrupted cards cost points . . . When one draws the angel of death card, then the turn is over and players must show their hands regardless of how many cards they have . . . Am I right?"

"Finally, someone who understands the game! So then, you draw first, and don't forget that a winner is declared based on the absolute value of points, so even someone with a heavy amount of negative points can win." Jericho confirmed.

Gale looked down and thought for a moment. He picked up one, and then Jericho picked one, then Gale and then Jericho again. They continued this until both held five cards, and then Jericho stacked the remaining cards into deck form. He quickly put away three cards and drew another three. Gale looked at his hand and discarded four, and then drew four more. He thought for a minute as he looked at his hand of four dragoons, one green dragon, one blue, one red, and one white dragon. He also looked to see he had one Beowolf card. Jericho discarded one and then drew one card, and Gale was about to discard his Beowolf card when he froze with his hand over the deck. "What a minute," he thought to himself before looking up at Jericho, who stared at him with a cocky smile. "Why did he only draw one card? Surely he would have done two to get the best hand . . . Unless," he looked at the deck and moved his hand a little closer.

Jericho held his cocky smile and Gale blinked once. "This next card . . . Its' warm . . . Does he use heat to determine what the next card will be?" Gale thought to himself. He pulled his hand away slowly and thought for a minute.

Jericho slouched in his chair, "Take all the time you need, I'm not going anywhere."

Gale nodded and looked down at his hand, "I've got a good enough hand even with this Beowolf card . . . But I need to get Jade and Cyrus their money back . . . The money!" He thought to himself.

Gale smiled at Jericho who looked at him with a bit of confusion. "Is something wrong there, Gale?"

Gale nodded and laughed, "I seem to have forgotten to put my money on the table."

Jericho laughed softly, "Ah, so you have, might as well put it up if you're going to lose it in a turn or two."

Gale smiled and laughed softly, "No, I just like showing my opponents the money they're never going to get."

Jericho blurted out a laugh, "Now you I like playing cards with, well then go ahead and show off the money I'll be winning either way."

Gale laughed and reached into his side pocket. He pulled out a red wallet with a phoenix etched onto it, opened it and tensed up slightly as he looked inside. Next to where he kept his Lien was a picture of two children playing together outside, one boy with fiery red hair and a bright red monkey tail, and a girl with golden blonde hair and bunny ears. "Jasmine . . . I," he let his breath out slowly and smiled down at the picture, "I'm helping two friends in need . . . Please know I'm keeping my word." He pulled out his money, and counted out a hundred before moving to put the rest back into his wallet.

As he put it away into his wallet, he quickly pulled a golden dragon card from behind the photo of him and Jasmine. With impossible speed and a calm expression he kicked the golden dragon into his hand with a quick flash, and no one seemed to notice as he closed his wallet casually and put it away. Jericho leaned back a bit as he waited, "Are you sure you're not going to make a move?"

Gale smiled at him, "Right, I know what I'll do now, I'll have to hope these four can beat him." He put the spider card down and drew another that had a picture of a poorly armed and armored trooper with a low number near it. "What? It's not the Angel of Death card?" Gale thought to himself.

He hid the card ever so gently behind his gold dragon card and Jericho drew the next card, "There it is then, the Angel of Death card," he showed off the card with a black Grim Reaper with angel wings on it. "The turn is done so we show our hands, I'll go first."

Jericho gave a cocky smile and placed his hand down, but as he was about to let go Gale saw him jerk his ring finger, quickly kicking a card up his sleeve as another slide out and took its original place without any sort of disturbance to give away his cheat. It happened so fast it was like some sort of illusion that no one but Gale seemed to notice. He looked up and blinked once in confusion as he saw Jericho's eyes flash a bright silver color for a quick instance. "I have three Ancient Grimm cards, A Fallen Huntsmen card, and the Goliath card, and when all those cards come together they give a whopping five hundred points, the highest amount one can earn." Jericho leaned back and smiled, "So what have you got?" Gale smiled and put his cards on the table. Jericho grinned with a satisfied look, "He's good," he thought to himself as no one else noticed the card hiding behind one of Gale's dragons.

Gale folded his arms and leaned back, "I've got the five Dust dragons, red, blue, green, white, and gold, and all are positive cards . . . Also of the same type, so that means I too have the maximum of five hundred points . . . I suppose it's a draw."

The crowed awed in amazement at what had happened in the game. Jericho shook his head, "Nope, you win mate, I saw what you did there and someone has finally attempted to beat me at my own game . . . And they succeeded from the looks of things around here; I almost didn't even notice it, so your friends have earned this back." He pushed the Lien he took from both Jade and Cyrus to the side near where they were. "I admire what you did for them, so here, that was a good game." He said with a laugh as he leaned back again. "Alright everyone, the game is over, sorry everyone, the airship is going to be there at Beacon any second now."

The large group disbanded until only the four remained. Gale handed Cyrus and Jade their credit chits, "Both of you just go back to the booth we have . . . I need to talk with Jericho for a moment . . . Alone." Cyrus nodded and began to walk away, but Jade hesitated for a minute. She looked over to Jericho who closed his eyes and gave her a happy grin. Gale nodded at her and she turned to leave. Once they were far enough away, Gale drop his smile and stared intently at Jericho. All other students were far enough away to not hear them.

Jericho swapped out his wide, cocky, happy smile for a smaller one as he opened his eyes and stared at Gale. "So," he leaned forward and rested his chin on the palm of his hand, which kept him at eye level with Gale who slouched back in his booth. "Why did you keep me here Mr. Wildheart? Surely this isn't some confession, because I'm afraid money has won my heart time and time again." Gale didn't even twitch at Jericho's comical remark. "Oh? Why are you being so serious?"

"I know about you as much as you about know me." Gale said without missing a beat.

Jericho tilted his head slightly and stared at Gale with the same bored but friendly look, "Oh really? Do tell what you know about me."

"I know you were associated with the underworld. A criminal human working with the White Fang. . . If you were hired or a part of them I don't know, but I do know they're not to be trusted . . . So forgive me if I'm a little on edge that you're here."

Jericho kept his expression and blinked. "Oh? Am I so bad at covering my trail that another kid found me out? I need to work on covering my tracks."

Gale frowned, "I know the underworld like the back of my hand,"

"Wrong," Jericho said sternly with a glare, "You know the upper underworld, you know the bosses; you know the petty crimes from people that are nowhere near the levels that the true underworld can drag you to."

Gale leaned forward, "Enlighten me," he said bluntly.

Jericho sighed but kept his smile, "Ok, well there's no reason to get too serious about all the details . . . I found out what they, my old step-fathers group, were planning to kill a lot of good people, and so I sold them out along with my other band of merry do-gooders. First, on the day of my fourteenth birthday, sold my step-dad out, gave away their HQ, schematics on the bases, defense forces patrol records, and everything. Next came the White-Fang. The authorities said I was clean but gave me no cash, so when I started stealing things to make a living, that's when I found out the leader of the first group, my step-father, was still alive . . . He's been hunting me down ever since, so one of the professors at Beacon Academy ended up finding me after I back stabbed a team of mercenaries that were going to sell me out to my said step-father, and he told me that if I went to his school and worked hard that I could make some good cash and even get my step-father off my back. . . How could I say no? The man who raised me to kill and lie wasn't my favorite role model, and he wanted me dead . . . Coming here was the only choice I had." Jericho said with a stupid smile.

Gale nodded slowly while listening to him finish his explanation, "Well . . . That seems somewhat believable."

Jericho shrugged, "Is it as believable as you thinking you could have cheated me out of winning your hundred credits?"

Gale twitched, "Hey you cheated too!"

Jericho laughed, "Oh, so you saw me? That explains why you went and did something like that, well aren't you a good friend to go to such lengths for others?"

Gale sighed and leaned back, "I feel bad for whoever gets on your team, human."

Jericho shrugged again, "Oh please, people will be happy to have me on their team, besides I've been told I can't gamble with students or steal anything while on campus, and if I get protection out of it then I might as well feed my bad habits until we actually get to Beacon."

Gale sighed and got up, "Just be careful, you're a student here now so I'd hate to lose someone even if they are a cheater. I'm going back to my cart, so just know I'll be keeping my eye on you."

Jericho laughed and nodded, "I'll feel so much safer having such a strong young monkey watching over me." Gale shook his head in annoyance.

Someone from another nearby cart whispered "What a pest," towards Jericho without knowing he heard it.

Jericho let his smile begin to fade when he was finally alone, and he stared down at his hands resting on the table. "I'm a pest . . . Yeah that's about right; I guess you were right . . . Father," he closed his fists and laid down on the booth, "Well, time for an hour nap." He said happily before drifting off to a somewhat sad sleep. The air ship sped along the rails over some thick woods. It continued its course until it made its way through a new city surrounded by forests that seem to go on for miles. In the distance stood a massive castle like area. This was the kingdom of Vale, and Beacon Academy stood proudly within it, watching over both the city and the lands surrounding it.


	8. Chapter 8 A Grand School,The First Night

Chapter 8: A Grand School, The First Night

The airship landed along with a few others near Beacon Academy. Students piled out and security officers pointed them towards the school were they were to gather. "Wow I can't believe we're finally here!" Sora squealed with joy upon seeing Beacon.

"It really is a sight to behold, and I'm glad I could see it with friends." Jade said with a soft and timid smile.

The girls turned around as it sounded like someone was being stabbed to death, and froze as they saw Gale trying to pull away from Elizabeth and Cyrus who each pulled on his uniform. "I can't feel . . . My legs." Gale complained.

Sora raised her brow, "I wonder what's gotten into him?" She asked no one in particular. The girls walked up to Star, who stood with her arms crossed while shaking her head.

"Hey Star, what's wrong with Gale?" Sora asked curiously.

She pinched her forehead and sighed, "I have no idea why, but apparently he's gotten sick from the air travel . . . He's been hiding it this whole time, and now that he's off the airship, well . . . This happened." They watched as he was slowly dragged away from the airship.

"Come on, don't be such a big baby!" Elizabeth shouted while dragging Gale with Cyrus helping her. Gale simply let himself be dragged on until they made it to the school gates.

The girls followed and then went up ahead of him as he began groaning again. Jericho kicked Gale in his butt, jumped over him like he was a trampoline, and started walking backwards towards the school, "Come on now, or else you'll be leaving me with one less person to fuck with!"

He jumped up each step while laughing, and Gale gritted his teeth. "Come back here you punk!" He ran after Jericho, straight through the school gates and passed other students, leaving Elizabeth and Cyrus to stare in confusion.

"So . . . His cure for motion sickness is . . . . That Jericho guy?" Elizabeth asked in confusion.

Cyrus shrugged, "Guess so . . . Come on let's go." Elizabeth nodded and went after him.

Once all the students had entered the school grounds, a PA began announcing instructions to them. "Attention students, attention, please note that you will be meeting at the central auditorium, there you will sleep for the night and then tomorrow you will get your teams. Welcome future Huntsmen and Huntresses, to Beacon Academy." The students flocked towards their destination in happy droves.

Sora smiled widely, "I'm finally here!" She thought to herself. Star gave a soft smile of pride, "I'll make you proud . . . Mother, Father, I swear to you." She thought to herself with confidence.

Jade stared with joy at the school, "Wow . . . It looks so pretty." She said out loud. Gale began to talk with her, and she felt happy at having made so many friends so quickly.

Cyrus and Elizabeth smiled happily, "We made it Elizabeth . . . Now we start with a clean slate." She grinned happily at him before returning to admiring the school.

Jericho leaned forward and smiled with a bored look, "Well . . . I guess I'll just have to make the best of this." He said before stretching and walking off deeper into the crowd. Gale stared at the academy intently, "Jasmine . . . I'll become a Huntsmen I swear . . . Just promise me you'll watch and see the good things I'm going to do . . . Please promise me you will." He thought to himself.

Inside the largest building at Beacon academy, a figure looked up at the airships landing not too far away. His gray hair swayed ever so slightly as the door behind him shut, and his tired yet alert eyes darted to the right to a large holographic screen. "So the board has been set, Glynda?" He asked into the shadowed room.

A blonde haired woman walked from the shadows, dressed in a teacher's uniform and glasses, her bright green eyes turned to the screen as she looked at her own large PDA. "The pieces have been gathered, it's just a matter of grouping them correctly . . . You took quite the risk with who you chose, Ozpin."

The man sighed softly before sipping on some steaming coffee. "Sometimes this world is cruel . . . War is not something I want these kids to ever experience . . . But war may be inevitable, and I only hope they will not have to see it."

"You don't sound so confident with that."

"Is it that obvious?"

Glynda looked up from the screen and out the window at Jericho being chased by Gale. "Can we really trust him?" She asked.

"I don't think we can trust anyone anymore . . . This is one gambit I can honestly say . . . I'm afraid of." He clicked a button on the holographic keyboard floating before the large computer screen. The images changed and showed a rugged, tan, and muscular man in black leather armor, a black cape, and with an eye-patch on that covered his left eye despite the large, obvious scar running down from his forehead, passed his eye, and down to his chin. His uncovered eye was bright aqua color, his head was bald, and his ears showed he was a human. The man held an inmate sign that read "237509, Godfrey Shadows," He was covered in filth and minor burns, but seemed to only show a calm and cold gaze in both his front and side photo that appeared on the screen. "This is a gambit . . . I think we all should be afraid of, and a mystery that has gone on for far too long."

Outside, the students happily viewed their surroundings, and spoke so loudly with excitement they could have woken the dead if they had a mind to. They all made their way to the large building some teachers directed them to as the auditorium. High above on one of the school buildings, a man cloaked in a dark cape, hood, and armor watched over the steady river of students. On his face was a black grim mask in the form of a human skull that seemed to be made of charred bone. He watched over the students and turned to look at the full moon. "Soon . . . Soon you will know true power Ozpin . . . You're crimes . . . Of harboring my prey," The man turned his head to look at the same office Professor Ozpin was in. "You will know true fear," The figure said to itself before turning around. He jumped from building to building until finally rolling on the ground and sprinting off into the darkened woods. A Beowolf howled into the night, and the man began to laugh when he was deep enough in the woods, "My vengeance . . . Has begun!" He shouted in blissful rage before vanishing as a murder of crows took flight.

-**In The School**-

The students massed together in a large ballroom. Sleeping bags lined together row after row, and students wandered around and talked with each other for as long as they could before lights out would be called. Jericho laid down on a row of three chairs so he could look outside at the moon. Jericho eyed a piano as Cyrus set up sleeping bags for himself and Elizabeth, while Elizabeth herself talked with Jade and Sora. Star smiled happily as she talked with Gale about what they might expect in the upcoming year at Cross Academy. Jericho finally shrugged and began to walk around before sighing, "Boring . . . I know!" He said with a grin before grabbing some luggage, "Glad I stowed this away." He rustled through his luggage and finally pulled out a lightly colored acoustic guitar, "Perfect, did you miss me?" He asked the instrument before sitting down on a chair and tuning it a bit.

A few students looked over and waited to see what he would do, "Hey look, someone brought an instrument." A male student said to his friends.

"Oooo, he looks kind of cute, don't you think Alice?" A female student teased her friends.

He sat down and brushed his hands over the keys, "Ok . . . Let's see if I can still do this." He carefully began to strum the guitar in a relaxing melody, and let his mind drift off into a world of unknown nightlife wonder. His mind filled with images of the big city at night, cars driving by and jazz filled air coming from all the surrounding clubs he frequented. His fingers danced across the strings as smooth relaxing sounds came from the instrument. Students looked over in surprise, while a lot of students whispered at how well he played. Jericho shut out the real world as he continually played relaxing music that seemed to put some students to sleep, and all while in his head he sped down a lonely highway on silver colored motorcycle. His imagination heard the smooth jazz flowing through the night air as he pictured himself speeding around the city with nothing but a clear night and a bright moon looking down at him.

After a few moments he stopped as the song ended, and he jolted slightly as he heard some people clapping at how well he had played. He laughed nervously as some people asked for more, but two of the teachers came in and began to call for lights out. Some students groaned in disappointment, and the group from the train made their way to their far right corner of the room where their sleeping bags lay. Gale laid at the farthest of the right corner at the very top, and sighed while staring up at the sky through one of the ballroom windows. Star lay down next to him and turned her back to him, but found that she was staring at Sora, knocked out in a deep sleep. Cyrus and Elizabeth lay next to them, but while Cyrus stared up at the ceiling wide-awake, Elizabeth lay on her stomach and was completely knocked out.

Gale continued to stare up at the sky until finally drifting off into a deep sleep. At the far left end of the ballroom sat Jericho, his body was shrouded in the shadows that engulfed the auditorium. He flipped through a few pages on his PDA's holographic screen before finally sighing. He stood up and moved towards the nearby window. Jericho lifted up his left hand and placed it on the lukewarm glass, "So then . . . Are things really going to be this simple now? Surely you wouldn't let it be like that right?" He asked himself. A flash of fire upon a house, screaming, and an intense but brief pain ripped through his head for a moment before he pulled his hand back and smiled while his eyes were covered by shadows. "Father?" He said before looking up and letting the moonlight shine on his concerned lips.


	9. Halloween Soil Update!

Hello, to the few people I've seen that read this, how you all doing? Thank you very much for having read this far into my fan ficiton, I've been busy with school and stuff and haven't got much time to write in this as I've been writing other stuff that I hope to get published as original content, and to be honest this whole thing started as an original idea, but then I was introduced to RWBY and realized "Oh f***. . . . Someone already posted something" about three years later I looked back on this work and thought "I don't want it to die . . . Might as well make it a fan ficition" and so I've been editing a lot.

Everything I've been editing has bee relatively easy to do, but now I hit an impass where things get rather intense and I've been trying to edit it and smooth it out while still incorporating stuff that would be happening here. Nevertheless, school and my own writing for work has taken a bunch of my time, but NOT ALL! I will hopefully be publishing the next chapter soon, look forward to it in the near future once editing is done and thanks for sticking with Halloween Soil! :D


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